Portrait of the Mage as a Young Man
by i-miei-occhi-verdi
Summary: THough they think that the adventures are over, the scoobies get called for one (final?) battle. Beware: Insanity and slashiness are contained within.
1. Endings and Beginnings

Starting at the Finish Line

And they finally found themselves alone, standing in front of a smoldering, barren landscape that stretched as far as the eye could see. They were missing important people from their lives but incredibly thankful for those who were still there. Basking in the hot California sun, perhaps reminiscing of other times or perhaps, looking towards a future that included new ones, the scoobies reflected. The First Evil had been defeated. The question was, had they ? 

The group had dubbed themselves the scoobies long before they knew what was going to be in store for them, long before they knew that they'd be a team for longer than the duration of the cartoon. They hadn't a clue of the ferocities they'd have to witness during the first quarter of their lives and maybe that was a good thing because if they had known that they would have lovers and friends violently taken from them they mightn't have signed up for the job. Luckily they had signed up, and together conquered demon after demon, situation after situation.. But would they continue to fight? 

* * *

In another part of the world a totally different group of young adults were only beginning the final chapter of their fights against the Latest Evil. They would have identified with the scoobies had they watched cartoons. As it was, they had no clue. It was a strangely localized war that was to erupt, with global repercussions that had no business being on the news. After all who would believe in a power hungry sorcerer who was planning on creating a supremacist world; a world divided into those who were magic, and those who were not. Hitler would have been impressed. So once again the genocide and extermination had begun, but on a whole new level. And no one was going to step in to help…no allies would come to the rescue because (of course) wizards "just don't exist". The golden trio was frightened. 

The Bus that the slayers and scoobies were in, trundled down the highway to LA seemingly taking more than the average 2 hours to get to their destination. Of course their destination was Angel Investigations. Where else would twenty new slayers, two old slayers, a key, a watcher, a carpenter, a very powerful witch, a mad scientist, and a principle be headed? Anywhere else and it would be the start of a very bad joke. 

They arrived in front of the old hotel that functioned as a base for AI, dirty, exhausted and to some degree, relieved that their struggle was over. Hearing a tired knock, Angel let the Sunnydale survivors in, noting the varied state of brokenness and immediately commandeering the more severely hurt. Although he knew that he could have these people patched up at their new office - the old Wolfram and Hart building, he felt that it would be better if they were in an environment that they trusted. So, Wesley and Angel cleaned and wrapped the wounds, and Gunn and Fred tended to their emotional states making quiet comments here and there to both grant comedic relief to the all pervasive grief, and to generate a feeling of calm after the storm. 

After all those who were in pain had been tended to (at least physically), the LA group left them to sort out rooms. Fortunately most of the rooms were in excellent condition due to the Goddess that they held court to and then killed the previous spring, and all they had to do was pick up some trash here and there and the rooms were ready. 

Oddly enough, the slayerettes were quick to appropriate a succession of only four rooms for themselves this first night. Though they had complained about the cramped space of Revello drive, they were quick to admit that in the aftermath of the battle, they wanted the comfort of many breathing bodies surrounding them. As the cumulative breathing slowed, the young women slept. 

Willow was ushered into the first room across the hall from the slayers. Though the LA people hadn't known about her and Kennedy, she had expected a knock on the door later on in the night. The interruption came, but instead of a short brunette, it come in the form of a tall one. At that moment, she could think of nothing better to do than sleep beside her best friend 

Buffy and Dawn were settled into the next room and though Dawn had been one of the least damaged physically, she was one of the most emotionally ravaged. She finally got to sleep after crying in her sisters' arms until she passed out. Buffy slept for the first time in weeks. 

Giles simply welcomed the gentle oblivion guaranteed by a bottle of Jack Daniels as he toasted to life. He slept. 

Faith carried Principle Wood into her rooms at the hotel so she could watch him recuperate. Her alarm was set to go off every hour on the hour to check up on his head condition so, needless to say, her first night back at the hotel was about as restful as those prior to the war. 

Xander…well, Xander was alone. That was really all that went through his head that first night as the darkness dropped on LA. He sat looking out of his windows and if no one saw the tears furiously charging down his cheeks they would have thought he was a statue. He was alone. Anya was dead. Spike was dead. twenty some-odd slayers were dead, Cordelia was dead. Tara was dead, Buffy's mom was dead, Ms Calender was dead, Jesse was dead, and he was alive. In a room with Andrew. Xander was alone while Andrew slept. 

Xander slowly got up and walked out the door ignoring Andrew's sleepy attempts at comforting words. He ambled down the hall and reluctantly tapped on Willows door. When they laid down on the bed together, they looked like calico cats. Red, white and dark brown splotched against the plain white of the sheets, looking innocent. They had sacrificed their own youthful innocence in order to preserve it in others and now, they finally slept. 

  


* * *

Of New Beginnings and New Battles

The next morning everyone woke up to the smell of food. Angel and company had roused themselves early in order to buy and cook breakfast for the small army. Finally having had some relatively peaceful rest, the scoobies and slayers were ravenous. Though the conversation started out light at breakfast, by mid afternoon everyone was slowly realizing reality. It felt like a rock in their stomachs. They had all lost someone close - some, more than others, and they knew that they would eventually have to continue on with life. 

Rather quickly, the slayers went back to their hometowns and families, hoping that by surrounding themselves with familiarity, the pain would lesson. They also realized that they had a duty to train and guide any slayerettes that they lived by. They promised to write, to email and to call, but as the summer wore on, the letters came fewer and far between. 

Giles went back to his mother country and took Kennedy with him. She had expressed an interest in starting a program that would integrate watchers' training with slayers and she had to be close to the new council to afbenefiial change. Giles was happy to oblige her, and, more personally, was happy to get her away from what he perceived was an ill-timed relationship with Willow. Willow needed stability and strength, so a relationship that blossomed in strife was not fit for the powerful Wicca girl. 

So life changed. No longer were they an army -they were once again a family.. 

Xander was the first Scooby to move out of the Hotel, claiming the excitement of Angel's crew coming and going from their latest adventure was a distraction from his work. He had, on Anya's advice two years ago, began wisely investing every spare cent he had made in stocks. Within two years, he had happened to make quite a bit of money. When he was informed by a lawyer that Anya Emerson had left him everything, he didn't think much of it until he found out she had "liquid assets" worth up to millions of dollars. After kindly donating to charities he decided to go back to school to study architecture and art history. Once again, making some wise investments - but this time, within himself. He bought and moved into an old house that he could spend his spare tim fixing up, and by the middle of the summer, not only had Willow moved in, but so had Dawn and Andrew. Buffy stayed at the Hotel catching up with Angel, until their relationship became toxic and then she moved in as well. 

By the Winter, their lives had finally settled down to a nicely dull routine. They went to school, they worked, and they did very little slayage. They each dealt with their own grief, aided by the thought that they were still a family and they were not alone. It took a while for the laughter and peace to finally came back however, when it did, it was oddly restful. 

It was Spring when Willow caught news of a group of xenophobes that were killing families in Europe. The local coven, though too frightened of her power to grant her membership, valued her participation in fighting evil enough that they tended to pass on news that they thought pertinent to the cause. This group killed whole families, and had destroyed a small village for no apparent reason. The deaths were criminally investigated of course, and the scientific community at large thought it was a widespread poison that was put in the water to be the cause of these horrifying, unexplainable deaths. Willow thought they sounded a little more supernatural. So, she searched the internet, and made some calls to the coven that she had been reformed by in England and was informed of the bit known. All the victims had been killed by a powerful bolt of magical energy, and a magical sign could be felt around the bodies which felt like some sort of signature. The killers called themselves death eaters and hid themselves from all detection. No one would do anything because they either didn't believe in magic, or were afraid. It was time to call the scoobies together once more. She would talk to them that night. 

It was 10:00pm and Dawn and Andrew sat playing poker for pennies in the upstairs living room when Willow popped her head in the room. "Hey guys, I hope I'm not interrupting a scintillating game of penny-poker, but could I talk to you in the Den in about five?" Willow asked.

"Okaaaay" they both intoned glancing at each other. Before they could find out what Willow was so excited about, she was already off to find Buffy and Xander. 

As it so happened they were both in the Den, watching TV and doing homework, respectively. She didn't know if she would ever get used to Xander the student but she did know that she was proud of him.

"Hi there, I need to talk everyone in the Den in about five, is that okay?" Willow asked. She focused on Xander and continued, "Do you have time to talk or are you extremely busy with homework?" 

Xander smiled and assured her that yes, in spite of the masses of homework threatening to bury him, he would always have time to talk to his best friend.

And within minutes, everyone was migrating to the Den downstairs while Willow prepared herself for a crappy night. After all, the Scoobies had expected that they wouldn't have any more battles to fight. And she had to bring up another one. 'Fuck' she thought to herself, ' I just hope they forgive me' and then she launched into her story.

As she finished Dawn raised her hand and asked if anyone else noticed the similarities to the stories by JK Rowling, and if that had any bearing on the situation. Though they all laughed at first, quickly their laughter died out. Weirder things had been known to happen. And they knew from experience that it was better safe than sorry. So, not knowing the answer herself, Willow had Buffy phone Giles. 

"Giles, is there such a thing as a Wizarding School?" Buffy asked, forward as usual. "Uhhh, why do you ask, Buffy - has something happened?" Giles sounded unnerved. "No-nothing, unless you count the sixty innocents killed by a group of people that decided to call themselves Death Eaters, a group that is found in the Harry Potter series that does the exact same thing," Buffy replied caustically, "Giles, please…just tell me. Is there a Wizarding School? Is Hogwarts really in existence?" 

Giles paused before he answered, figuring he might as well get it all out in one foul swoop. "Yes, there is a school named Hogwarts but no one who is not magic knows about it. What those of us who are, or were, a part of the wizarding world have been told, is that the tale was sold to a muggle by a squib who needed some quick money. The muggle was quite brilliant and expanded the original story into a profitable series. Though it deviates after the fourth or fifth book, (I must admit, I can not remember which) the novels are quite true, and thus are a danger to the wizarding world's reality. Those of us who are living on the periphery of the magical world are to ensure that they are considered complete fiction by the general population." Rupert paused to take a breath, sure the phone had been placed on speaker phone by now, "Indeed, Ethan and I attended Hogwarts, that is where we met." He was met with more silence, so he went on. "I have recently been made aware of the resurgence of death eater activity in and around Scotland. I was going to send a contingent of watchers and slayers to Hogwarts but…."and here he paused for a length, "They may be ill-equipped to handle a situation so unique. If it is possible, would a group of you be willing to investigate these deaths?"

Xander, Dawn, Willow, Buffy and Andrew looked at one another, and all became aware of a new light in each other's eyes. There curiosities' were piqued and they realized that it had been almost a year since they had had any sort of challenge. Grins broke out on their faces and they all said yes, contingent on the fact that they could have magically altered laptops in order to continue on in their studies, that Giles would find work and living arrangements for them, and that transportation and apparel funds were provided for by the council or the ministry. They were all a little worried about what exactly fashion was going to be like in this strange alternate reality. 

* * *

Meetings and Marvels

Within the month they all had received large ups packages with travelers checks specific to Gringotts bank, certifricites to Madame Malkins, and more information pertinent to work and housing. Though they all would be living within Hogwarts, they would be taking different assistant teaching positions. The positions would be decided upon arrival at Hogwarts. Each packet contained a flat port key in a separate envelope with the date of arrival and the destination: front hall, Hogwarts, August 1st. 

Unfortunately, it took them a few weeks to get everything prepared for their unique adventure. Since they were going for an unspecified amount of time, they had to sell their house, they had to make arrangements with their universities and they had to quit their jobs. The house was sold to a young couple who decided to rent it out to students, much to Xanders chagrine. As for the question of how they were going to continue their schooling, it was lucky that they had the council's backing: even though mostly decimated, the council still held "influence" in university circles. They convinced UCLA to educate Xander, Willow, Andrew and Dawn over the Internet. They then all gave two weeks notice and said goodbye to the mundane jobs they had held. Well, all of them except Buffy. She had finally gotten a job that she loved as a personal dresser. She would be sorely missed by all of her clients. After all of their preparation, they were finally ready, and on the first of August, they all activated their port keys and landed rather forcefully in the front foyer of the deserted school

Dawn was the first to start breathing normally. And then a giggle escaped as she spotted the man in front of her and his companions. He was wearing very loose royal blue trousers and a sort of loose matching jacket/robe thing overtop a matching shirt. It was sort of eastern in functionality and design, and made him look rather eccentric. He had no pointy hat, but at least, he had the expected white hair and beard, although his beard was neat and closely cut. He was nothing like what they were all expecting when they thought of their new Headmaster. To the left of Dumbledore was a older woman who was wearing a beautiful deep maroon dress with sensible shoes and her hair neatly pulled back in a chignon. They all suspected that this was Professor Minerva McGonagall, but once again, they really weren't sure if it was her because of their expectations of what Prof. McGonagall was supposed to look like. Finally, to the right of Dumbledore was a man in black sleek slacks, a classic thick black ribbed turtleneck with short black stylish hair. He was very good-looking in a James Bond kind of way. The only character that had jet black hair and eyes in the Harry Potter books was Snape so they were a little bit confused once again. 

All the speculation was cleared up when Dumbledore introduced himself and his two companions as indeed, Minerva McGonagall and Severus Snape. They were all shocked at how different the books were from reality, but the surprise did serve a purpose: the Scoobies could not assume that the books were reality. 

After putting a shrinking spell on the luggage of the unsettled group, Albus invited the newcomers in to his inner office for tea. Prof. McGonagall transfigured Dumbledore's desk into a large sofa, and they all warily sat down as the headmaster asked a house elf to bring tea.

"Welcome to Hogwarts" he said with a bit of a flourish, "I hope you will join us for some tea?" The scoobies politely accepted, just glad to sit down after experiencing the wonder of traveling by port key. It was a rather unnerving way to get from one place to another. As their stomachs calmed down, they began to unwind and their attention was slowly drawn away from the people they were supposed to be conversing with. Xander was staring at the flying buttresses, the arched windows and doors and the high ceilings of this castle he was in. It was an amazing sample of Gothic architecture and he wondered if he could duplicate some of the designs in this future. Willow however, found herself entranced by the magical energy that leaked through every surface and permeated the air, it seemed to be drawing wreaking havoc on her controls. She knew that she was easily the most powerful in the room and strove to hid that fact. The petite red head did not want to become ostracized or worse for her powers when she had finally found a place where magic was accepted. Though Dawn could also feel the magic, her focus was divided between the gorgeous Snape and the cutie Andrew. She had, as of late, discovered that her feeling towards Andrew were a little more than just platonic and she hoped that he would return them. If not, she could always just stare at Snape. She wondered why he was portrayed as such an ugly character. Her mind wandered back to Andrew Andrew was obviously drawn to the phoenix and the phoenix seemed to notice this. The bird flew up from the perch it was sitting on, landed on his shoulder and a tear dripped from Fawkes' eye to Andrew's head. A peace finally fell on Mr. Sills that he had previously never known. He had been evil once, but was atoning, just like Angel. He would get his redemption as well. Now Buffy was just enchanted by the moving portraits. They simply adored this blonde beauty and kept complimenting her on her hair, her makeup and her rather daring outfit. When they found out she was the slayer, the gossip mill started up for the pictures on the wall. Buffy was happy to oblige with a few juicy details of her life, but left it there. 

All this…newness was simply too much to handle even for the usually conscientious young adults. They had, seemingly abandoned all professionalism. Dumbledore, Snape and McGonagall traded glances that basically questioned whether or not these people were actually the ones that defeated the First Evil. They were acting positively...childish. 

The tea arrived and the three professors took this time to look over the newcomers. The man who introduced himself as Xander had almost black hair with crimson highlights, obviously not natural. He was wearing a pair of trendy jeans with a slinky blue button down shirt, an eye patch, and two black plugs in his ears the width of a pinky. The blonde - Buffy, she said - was wearing high heeled boots, a black pencil skirt and a champagne colored ballet sweater. She had a magical creature aura...she wasn't magical per se, but she wasn't a muggle either. The youngest and most entertaining of the group was Buffy's sister Dawn, who was wearing a pair of fitted jean shorts with a maroon and gold striped polo shirt that had - what's this? - a crest sporting Gryffindor Quidditch on it. When she turned around they were shocked to read the name Harry Potter and the number 32 on the back. It was mostly inaccurate, but still unsettling. She winked at each of them as they noticed her shirt and then laughed. She gave off quite a bit of magical energy. The blonde boy exuded nervousness, but there was an aura of magic about him as well. He was wearing a pair of jeans similar to the ones Xander wore with a white shirt that had the Chinese character for peace on the front in the same deep blue that was streaked through his longish wavy golden blonde hair. But it was the redhead that everyone was stuck on. Her hair was long layered and full, and she wore an Asian inspired silky tank/bustier in red, green and black, and wore green silk fitted pants that were tied off midway between her knees and ankles. On her feet she wore a pair black simply strapped high heeled sandals. And on both of her arms she had black tattooed arm bands. On one side it was the Celtic band of knowledge and on the other it was a succession of designs that seemed to be the phases of the moon.

This woman…Willow emanated magic and power, and yet had the strength to not leave magic imprints anywhere. It was astounding. The only person who was even remotely that strong was Voldemort. Not even Harry was this strong. And yet…there was darkness in her. Hopefully, they had a chance to end the war quickly after all.

The odd thing about this group was that the group had such presence. It wasn't as if one was more forceful than the other. They all seemed to have such knowledge of each other and themselves. Something rather awful must have happened to them to force such senses of self. The headmaster saw this trait occur only in people that had survived strife, no - not just survived it, beaten it and conquered it. If Dumbledore was a betting man, he'd bet that these people had some stories to tell. 

After tea, Dumbledore proceeded to update the story of Harry Potter and Voldemort. He told them of the attacks on muggles, and the Order of the Phoenix. He told them of Voldemort's plan of genocide and explained how powerful the man - creature was. Snape and McGonagall added when they could, but Dumbledore did most of the telling. Harry, Hermione and Ron had graduated and were pursuing careers while waiting out the scheming Voldemort. Ron was an auror, Harry played international Quidditch for the Deutschland Dragons, and Hermione was studying to be a lawyer. It had been about 6 years since their graduation from Hogwarts and so the Scoobies were surprised to find out that they were the same age as these characters were.

Dawn took this opportunity to find out information about the other, lesser known characters of the book. She had been the most addicted to the Harry Potter series, having seen all the movies in the theatre at least twice, and having owned all of the books. She liked the lesser characters - they added a realistic dimension to the books. She was informed that Neville was assisting Professor Sprout, Seamus and Dean were sports casters for quidditch national, Sirius and Lupin were together and recently married, Peter Pettigrew having finally been caught, and Draco was an auror with Ron. She and Andrew exchanged incredulous looks at this bit of knowledge. Draco an auror? How was that possible. Last they had read, he had gone missing in the final battle while fighting alongside his father. Weird. They were both avid J.K. Rowling fans, and to find out that everything was real….but quite unlike she portrayed it was both horrifying and exciting. These people weren't supposed to be real… They were characters in a book and that was why it was okay to despise Malfoy and Snape or laugh when something happened to Neville. Now they felt guilty; these were real people, not merely characters in a best selling series. Dawn let out a sigh and said , "Well fuck me sideways, it's real" to which Buffy replied "Dawn!" in a scandalized sort of tone, while everyone else heartily agreed. 

Now that the mood was lightened, McGonagall took this opportunity to have the people sorted into houses. It was a fun activity that was instigated to put smiles on the guests faces and a frown on Snape's. 

They were quite surprised at the results of the sorting hat, to say the very least. Xander, and Dawn got sorted into Ravenclaw, the house usually attributed to the intellectuals and book nerds. Apparently Xander was book friendly now, and the hat decided to encourage that and Dawn had always been intelligent, learning different languages while doing impressive loads of research for the Scooby cause. Andrew, however, was sorted into Gryffindor, the house associated with bravery, and though a little surprised, the Scoobies agreed that, considering his past with Warren and Jonathan, it had taken a lot of courage to face his past transgressions head on and accept and change them. Then Buffy and Willow were sorted into Slytherin. 

For Buffy it was her gift of power and death that drew the hat to that conclusion. It was her talent for leadership that landed her in the infamous house. For Willow it was the fact that she was not afraid of the demons in her heart. The hat seemed to appreciate her power and her shadowed Light quite a bit. Willow was a Slytherin. 

After the sorting, they had to discuss the arena of work. After much deliberation, Xander was placed as the Muggle assistant teacher, Andrew was the assistant for Potions due to the fact that he had excelled at chemistry, and Snape figured that with strict summer training he should be ready by fall. Willow and Buffy decided to take over the Defense against the Dark arts position, and Dawn would be assisting the lower grades of transfiguration.

The house-elves then lead four out of the five companions to their rooms. Since Buffy and Willow were the first to be dropped off, the rest of the scoobs decided to meet in front of the portrait that served as a door to both of their rooms' in 2 hours time. This would allow them time to accustom themselves to their rooms and unpack before getting back together. After all, they had some things to discuss…or more importantly, get excited over.

Willow unpacked and then proceeded to perform extra meditations. The profusion of magic in the castle was a tad overwhelming and she needed to be sure she had total control. Make no mistake, she saw the worry in all three of her hosts eyes when they alighted on her. She also saw the suspicion in the man, Snape's intelligent dark eyes. She would have to deal with that. In the past, a situation like this would have made her nervous, but since the defeat of the first she had refocused her time into gaining the confidence and esteem that a witch of her power simply had to have. Control, control control. That was what was needed when in possession of this much power. 

After unpacking, Andrew found Dawn's rooms via the house-elves and the two of them went exploring. They were a little creeped out when the ghosts flew through their heads and left them shivering, but on the whole they thought the hallways, portraits , and moving stairways were cool. Even though they sometimes had to wait for the stairways to come back. And it didn't seem like calling the stairways _bad puppies_ worked. 

Buffy had brought the most stuff out of everybody. She had brought a plethora of clothing, unsure of what to expect and hoping for the best. She wasn't as comfortable as she had once been of taking other people's money, and she didn't want to depend on the council for shopping money even though it had been a provisional. After unpacking, she changed into some comfortable gray sweat pants, a white sports tank shirt, and a white hoodie with the word "angel" in white stitching across the back. It was a gag gift from her sister, and it reminded her of LA. and the comfortable life she had been living for a while. Buffy went into the hallway and started doing some light sparring with an imaginary opponent. She missed Angel. 

Xander, however was not lead to his room; for some reason he was lead to the infirmary and greeted by Snape, Dumbledore, and Madame Pomfrey. "Mr. Harris. I understand that you lost your eye in a battle with the First. Is this true?" The young man swallowed the surge of grief that welled up and nodded his head. "Would you like to try to repair it with our aid?" Dumbledore kindly asked. "Um, there's nothing really there to fix. It's just flesh and scar tissue." Xander finally answered after pausing to collect himself. "Nonetheless, would you accept our help?" Dumbledore repeated again. Xander felt torn and with a pained look said "Did you know my ex-fiancé died in that fight along with countless young innocent girls in that battle? What's my eye compared to all of that?" 

Strangely, it was Snape who understood the man's reluctance. He motioned for Mme Pomfrey and Dumbledore to leave the potions and let him talk to the young man. "Mr. Harris, I know you have read the books about Harry Potter. Do you recall the Mark that I received?" Xander nodded slowly. "It was a black skull with a snake coming out of it's mouth, wasn't it?" As he spoke, the professor pushed up his sleeve. Indeed, the Mark was still there, black and ominous. "Mr. Harris, though I may have made the choice to receive this at one time, do you doubt that now it is a scar to me?" Xander grimaced and answered "No. I've had friends who've made mistakes, but the mistakes usually ended up teaching them something. The scar probably just reminds you of the mistakes you made, and maybe helps you to fight harder" Xander tentatively speculated. "Very astute, Mr. Harris. Now, If I were to tell you that I would love to get rid of this mark, would you think that I was no longer aware of my past mistakes? Would you think that I'd ever forget the people who died beside me, fighting against what this mark stood for?" There was a silence fraught with collective grief of the two men. Snape spoke again. "Would it be so terrible to get rid of the external scar? A scar that, I might add, actually impedes your ability to fight for the light, Mr. Harris?" Snape placed his hand on the young man's arm gently, "you certainly have enough internal scarring, Xander. Let someone take care of the external." Xander nodded. Though he was worried about the other scoobies' reactions, he felt that Professor Snape was right. He would never forget the people who died, and he was tired of the pity that still, one year later, occasionally flashed in his friends' eyes. Snape handed him the two potions. One was a body-part-growth serum that actually worked with his DNA codes to determine the specifics of the body part to be regrown. One was a healing serum, to heal and shrink the skin around the eye and take away the scar tissue. He took those right away. The other was a painkiller that he was to take a spoonful of every two hours throughout the night. He unfortunately had to stay in the infirmary for the rest of the day and night. Snape reassured him that he would check on him every two hours to remind him to take the painkillers. It would take a full 12 hours to regrow and heal the eye and then the boy would need some real sleep.

It was 6:30 and Dawn, Andrew and Buffy began making their way to the very Mona Lisa like portrait. The woman's name was Aleksandra and she seemed reluctant to open up for them. Willow quickly came to the rescue and invited the group in. They sat down and looked expectantly at each other.

"Uh I just got a letter from an owl, guys" Willow said in surprise. Well, it was surprising to find a huge owl tapping at your window when you're meditating. "This place is so cool" Dawn squealed in response and Andrew and the others nodded their assent. "What did the letter say?" Buffy asked, finally getting to the point of the matter. Willow then handed the note over. 
    
    _
    Miss Willow Rosenberg
    This is to just assure you that though Mr. Harris will be occupied for the duration of the day and night he will join you tomorrow at breakfast. I'm sure he will tell you why tomorrow. I ask that you be understanding.
    Professor Severus Snape.
    _

"Okay that's a bit weird. I'm sure he's okay, though. Right guys?" the blonde girl wanted reassurance. "Buffy, I'm sure Xander is just fine. I'm sure I would be able to feel if he was in trouble. Let's just be patient until the AM, okay?" Willow smiled calmly and hugged her friend tightly. "So did every body find there rooms okay?" Buffy asked in a feeble attempt to change the topic. "Yeah, but it's pretty confusing getting around" Andrew replied, "I wonder if I could get a map"-his voice trailed off while speculating about creating a digital tour of the place. "Just ask the portraits for help - they seemed pretty helpful to me, critiquing my fighting style and stuff.. Although, they may be a little too helpful at times" she said with a rueful grin, remembering a particularly feisty portrait of an old man that was commenting on her "assets" She giggled and there was a pause in the conversation as everybody realized just how odd the situation they were in was.

Willow broke the silence with a stream of babble speak. "So I hope you all like your rooms - I like my room, it's really nice with a great view even though I guess I live in a dungeon - at least there are no chains and shackles eh Buffy? I really hope you guys are okay with this. I know I kind of signed us up but they really need us and we have been able to rest for the past year so I thought that we could at least help other people and maybe the powers that be want us here, even though Angel didn't get a sign or dream or whatever." Here she took a deep breath and looked at Buffy, " and please don't be mad at me for all the magic, this is controlled magic so I should think that it will be okay..."

"Wills!" Buffy interrupted, "it's fine, it's fine. Don't worry" "What I am a little worried about is the fact that you and I are actually going to be teaching a class!" The two young women shared a mischievous smile. "I wonder what it's like on the other side of the classroom," Buffy continued with a rather devilish little grin. "I wish I was taking on defense against the dark arts," Andrew whinged, "I'm a little intimidated by Mr. Snape" Dawn rolled her eyes but then smiled kindly. The last thing Andrew needed was a disparaging comment. "Andrew? You do realize that you fought the Very First Evil, a group of centuries old icky vampires, and you did it while alongside a girl who has been wreak vengeance for the past millennia, right? Snape is nothing to that" She squeezed his shoulder and he grinned back at her. "You're right, I really didn't think of it that way." Dawn and Andrew had become quite close and were perhaps as inseparable as the older trio of scoobies was. Andrew then glanced down at his watch and said, "It's time to go to dinner and meet the rest of Hogwarts" They all nervously glanced at each other, than slowly found their way to the dining area.

Upon entering the Great Hall, they did the first year thing and gawked at the ceiling, which inspired some indulgent smiles from the staff. Because hey, they were just kids, right? This couldn't be the entourage that was going to save them from Voldemort, could it? They hoped not. As the group got closer, the staff's opinion changed. The power emanating from this group was almost tangible. They all had magic, and the red head, Willow, had the most power they had ever felt. 

The head table was arranged so tonight, people could sit on both sides. As soon as the Scoobies sat down, formal introductions were made, excuses for the lack of Mr. Harris were promised and the food appeared and everyone started eating.

Slowly, a conversation started up, mostly consisting of the staff describing aspects of wizarding life, like the importance of house elves (which the scoobies found questionable), and the lack of electricity (though their laptops would work due to a complex spell written by Flitwick). They asked if they could meet the 3 musketeers, and D'artagnan, if at all possible. The referral went over all of their heads except for Snape who thought it was a clever analogy for the original Golden trio, even though Draco as D'artagnan wasn't quite accurate. Snape smirked at the thought of his favorite student being referred to as a musketeer. Draco would be outraged. After all, he didn't really want to follow them, he just wanted to stay safe. They clarified, "We would like to meet the stars of the Harry Potter books, if possible." Willow offered to explain further, until Dawn interrupted, "Yeah, the books all portray Harry as this kind of introverted Hero-type, and Hermione as this totally bossy book nerd. Ron is sort of the side-kick, he's written off as being kind of weak and not as bright as the other two, and Draco is written as a whiny, spoiled, egotistical brat - we kind of want to know if we're going to get along with the other young Order of the Phoenix members, or if we're just going to have to take care of the problem ourselves, like always." There was silence, as the Hogwarts staff took in the utter confidence of this young girl, and the fact that she had the audacity to believe that they could wipe out the problem by themselves. Snape raised an eyebrow and in a tone entirely too controlled, remarked on the innocence of children, pointedly looking to the new group of young adults. The scoobies collectively groaned, knowing that Dawn was going to go off on him for making such an ignorant comment. She took a moment to compose herself (that was a bad sign) and then arched an eyebrow condescendingly back at Snape. "Severus, you don't mind me calling you Severus, do you?" Not waiting for an answer she went on. "Severus, we defeated the Very First Evil and his band of Demons and Vampires. Can you even comprehend the meaning of that? I know you were informed of it . Please note the fact that Willow is the strongest witch alive and was able to recast as spell originally cast thousands of years ago with earth magic. As for me, I'm a ball of focused magical energy and that enables me to fight and do magic as well as open portals, and on top of that I'm a pro at research and know about 10 different demonic languages. My sister here is the longest surviving slayer twice over, Andrew has both fought and been a part of evil magic and come out of it pretty much unscathed which is a feat that even some of the strongest men have not been able to achieve, and Xander is a warrior of the first degree." She was not so enamored of this man that she would not stand up to him. 

You could hear a pin drop. 

Andrew coughed, and said, "So, who can explain quidditch to me, I'm dying to get my hands on a broom. In the movie it was so cool! They were going so fast and there were bludgers flying all around, and hey! How about those Chudley Cannons..." As he peppered the different professors with questions about the art of flying a broom and the skill involved in playing quidditch, the table began to slowly pick up the conversation. Willow breathed a sigh of relief and looked over at the man who had so angered Dawn. He was handsome in a dark and foreboding way. Not that that was unusual around Sunnydale, she thought to herself. She sensed controlled power and found she desired to know more about his past, it undoubtedly had Dark in it. She blushed as she realized she was staring pretty blatantly, but then winked at him when she realized he was staring back. He blinked slowly and then turned back to his food. That was strange, she was pretty sure he was checking her out. Maybe he was just drawn to her magic.

As the food and conversation dwindled, Dumbledore commanded attention once more. "Would you like to meet Harry, Ron and Hermione tomorrow? We've arranged for you to floo to Diagon Alley to meet them where they will then help you pick up supplies and whatever else you would find yourselves needing. They also have offered to take you to lunch at the Three Broomsticks and offered to tell you the things that a young witch or wizard needs to know, undoubtedly something I would not know" He said this last part with a gentle smile and a sparkle in his eyes. "Would this be to your satisfaction?" he asked. The Scoobies brightened at this question and said that "yes, it would be just fine." The staff then departed to their rooms, Willow and Buffy went to find a place to spar, and Andrew and Dawn went off to find the library and to start research on the Newest Evil, Voldemort.

It was midnight when they finally retired to their separate quarters to sleep and dream of the next big adventure. 

However, at midnight Xander was going through the most excruciating pain that he had ever experienced. Apparently, growing an eye would hurt just as much as losing one would. The bi-hourly painkillers took the edge off of the pain, but they were not enough to help to him go to sleep. Snape decided that a higher dosage was in order and administered one immediately. The growth was coming along nicely, and the boy's system was working well with both of the serums. The young professor was pleased to see Xander fall into a deep sleep.

When Xander woke up at 6:00AM he felt rested but sore. He got up and made his way to the bathroom and was surprised when two brown eyes stared back at him from the mirror. He turned to find Snape observing him. "Professor" he started awkwardly, as he tried desperately not to cry in front of this man, "thank you so much...if I can do anything for you, to repay this, please tell me." Snape smiled inwardly. "Ah Mr. LaVelle, I have this feeling that you will be doing great things soon enough but thank you anyways." With that statement, he turned and left, his black coat billowing out behind him. "Why do all tall dark and handsome men have to be cryptic?" Xander thought to himself with a grin. Tears began rolling uncontrollably down his smiling face as he truly realized that he had his eye back. He ran back to his room to get an extra hour of sleep, knowing he would need it to deal with the scoobies reactions tomorrow.

* * *

The next morning the Sunnydale crew woke up and got ready to meet up again; this time in the great hall for breakfast. Just outside of the hall, Xander managed to catch up to them. He just managed to pull them to an open corridor when the questions started. "Xander! Where were you last night! We were worried about you even though Snape said not to... Omigoddess-Xander..." Willow laid her hands on his face, sure it was an illusion. She sent a warm pulse of magic through her fingertips and into his skin to check if it was real. It was, Xander had a new eye - but how?. By now, Andrew and Dawn had noticed. "Xander, you have your eye back! Oh my God. How did this happen?" they both cried out. "I took a couple of potions last night, felt like my head was being ripped open, and woke up this morning with what you see here." He paused and looked around expectantly. "Guys are you okay with this? I decided that it was what I had to do last night, but I hope you're not mad at me….Buffy are you ticked?" Buffy had become very quiet. She turned her face to Xander, and he noticed the tears welling up in her eyes. "Xander, you're you again. I'm just so sorry I let it happen to you in the first place." A brilliant smile lit her face "I just can't believe it! You have your beautiful eyes again and I mean that in a strictly platonic way" She added the last part on with a very chicanerous grin. She then hugged her friend tightly. Willow hugged them both, and Andrew and Dawn stood there with goofy smiles on their faces holding on to each other. Xander's healing didn't remove the memories but eased some of the hurt that they all still felt once in a while.

After each Scooby profusely thanked Dumbledore, Mme Pomfrey and (mostly) Snape for healing Xander, they nabbed one end of the front table and talked together about various things they had to take care of, such as contacting Giles, the coven, and Angel Inc. in order to trade information. Xander suggested a list serve where they could write one email, and everyone could get the information needed. Dawn set her computer up at the table, and began composing the update while she casually munched on some toast. Once and a while they again commented on Xanders eyes, but they didn't want to make him feel odd. They also didn't notice the stares of the rest of the table. The rest of the staff was fascinated by the order and swiftness of this new group. They realized with complete clarity that this, indeed was a team, a veritable force to be reckoned with. These Americans knew what they needed to do, and then did it. After breakfast the staff left and the Sunnydalians were left doing research on the web and skimming the scores of books Dawn and Andrew had brought. Andrew himself was reading "Hogwarts, A History" and kept on interrupting whatever they were doing to let them know one interesting tid bit or another. There research was quite preliminary, but they really just needed a feel for the magic that pervaded this niche of the world. And yes, they were each a little worried about looking too ignorant. After all, they didn't want to look dumb in front of the people they were going to meet

Later that morning, they gathered in front of the fireplace in the main foyer and listened while Snape explained traveling by floo. He first demonstrated and then all five of them followed, albeit reluctantly. When they arrived in the flue room at the back of the Three Broomsticks, they were a bit dusty and a bit unnerved at the weird mode of traveling, but no more worse for wear. The desperate dusting of clothes stopped abruptly when they took note of the three people in front of them. In the middle was a red head that they, from the books, knew had to be Ron. He was about 6'2, had a swimmers body and the most disarming grin. His hair hung in his eyes and he was wearing a pair of black leatherish (dragon hide) pants and a white long sleeved fitted shirt with orange and black tribal designs up and down the one arm, and Chudley Cannons down the other. To the right of Ron was a young woman who looked very put together. She was slim and tall - easily Dawn's height - and wore white sneakers, low cut blue jeans, a white tank top with an orange and white sweatshirt overtop that sported the logo of Harry Potters Quidditch team on it and had very fashionable sunglasses on. Her teeth were perfect and so they deemed this Hermione Granger, daughter of dentists. To Ron's left was a young, tired looking man with longer, messy, hair that made him look like he had just been well shagged. He had green eyes, sure, but they were largely hidden behind the glasses he was wearing. He had on a pair of dark khakis, and a white t-shirt, and was pretty normal looking except for the crazy scar on his forehead. The trio looked at each other warily, while the scoobies did the same. Snape, having had enough of this quiet posturing, turned around and left with a quick dismissive nod to each party. 

It was obvious that each group was trying to discern the "type" of group the other was. Hermione broke the silence, "So, shall we start with shopping, or are you hungry?" Knowing that shopping would create conversation, they all decided to start with that.

As they walked from one store to the next, Dawn noticed that she was getting some pretty odd looks. She leaned over to Andrew and asked him if anything was wrong with what she was wearing. Hermione overheard and explained that the punk movement had never quite made it to Hogsmeade, and that her outfit; a pair of docs, plaid bondage pants and cuffs, and black tight Ramones t shirt was shocking, to say the least... To top it all off, Willow had charmed Dawn's brown hair into a wild main of black and platinum locks. Andrew then took the moment to tell them that, "according to Hogwarts, A History, school uniforms had been instigated in the early 1800's to promote house awareness, and equal opportunity" and Harry and Ron groaned rather loudly. Hermione was impressed. 

* * *

The last store they were headed into was Ollivanders. Dumbledore had recommended that they go there to get a wand for Dawn, Willow and Andrew and they were pretty excited about getting their own wands after seeing Ron, Hermione and Harry's. The very first wand Dawn waved gave off a shower of fireworks. It was made out of cedar and contained the scales of a mermaid and was inlaid with mother of pearl on the handle. It was very beautiful, and it seemed to somehow 'fit' her. Willow was next, but, after trashing the store and frightening the pants off of Harry, Ron and Hermione four times with the small swishes of a wrong wand, she decided to take matters into her own hands. Willow sent out a call to the wand that needed her. A wand floated right into the palm of her hand and as soon as she wrapped her hand around it, she could sense that it was a wand created out of the base of an ancient redwood with a core of the hair of a chimaera. It was an odd combination, but indicated balance which she took to be a good sign. Andrew went through a stack of wands and finally found a birch wand with the feathers of a hippogriff in the core. When he swished it, a rain of red rose petals came floating down. Andrew was unimpressed, but everybody else thought it was a riot, being that it oddly resembled something that would happen in a movie. After calming down they paid for the wands and were half out the door when Ollivander called out to them from the back of the store.

"Doesn't the mage need his wand?" " 


	2. Witches, Wizards and Mages, oh my!

Witches,Wizards and Mages, oh my! "Pardon me, but I detect that the mage doesn't have a wand? Does he not want one?" Ollivander was confused. Why wouldn't the mage want his wand? The two groups looked at each other with confusion, "M-mage?" Andrew said, nervously looking around, "do you mean Harry Potter?" The elderly shopkeeper shook his head at the ignorance of these children, slowly walked up to Xander and put his hand on his heart - apparently feeling for something. "He's gone wonky" Ron whispered to Hermione. "Oh, I assure you, Mr. Weasley, I have not 'gone wonky' as you so nicely put it. I may be old but I am not senile. Perhaps you should turn the speculation inwards" Ollivander replied to the badly whispered comment. Hermione and Andrew both chuckled at the slight aimed at the redhead, then quickly stopped when Harry and Ron glared at them. Ollivander turned his attention back to his newest customer. "Young man what is your name - your complete name - if you don't mind telling me?" "Alexander LaVelle Harris" the black and red haired boy replied. "And you don't believe you're magical, hmmm?" Ollivander mumbled to himself. With that, the old man walked to the back of the store and rustled around. He brought out an ornate 3 inch by 14 inch box designed in the style of the renaissance. They all peered at the case. It had the name LaVelle engraved on the front with a rather large and deep V. Ollivander grabbed Xander's hand and quickly pierced it with a sharp pin, and he yelped. When the blood dropped into the cleft of the V, the box sprang open. A beautiful wand with an onyx handle and stained wood laid there, practically humming with energy "Well boy, what are you waiting for? Pick it up!" Xander picked it up and waved it around. Nothing happened.

Suddenly, the sounds of battle arose around them, crescendoing from a quiet grumble to a loud roar, An image of a dark haired warrior fighting beside a dragon appeared in the store, actually, overlapped the store as if the group were in the midst of this battle. Yes this boy was powerful, but not a mere wizard. He was a mage. The knowledge of Xander's history and his capability as a warrior mage seemed to flow straight into their minds. Mages were the protectors of magic, the ones who carried magic in their hearts and in their souls. They took their power directly from air, earth, fire, and water, and used it to protect the purity of magic. These mages always fought on the side of good, and they were always be protectors. As Xander felt the vision end, he felt a surge of energy envelop his body leaving him feeling oddly complete. Kind of like he was a puzzle that had one little corner piece lost, and this was that piece. He was whole.

Ollivander felt the need to extrapolate on the beauty and power of the wand even though Xander just wanted to go somewhere to digest this news. He did manage to find out that the stain on the wand was the blood from the heart of a dragon, and that the core was composed of ground up dragon scales. The age was unknown. The shopkeeper than gave him an old book that was tightly encased in dragon hide and entitled LaVelle, then shooed them out of the store. _An Elven mage, the strongest witch he had sensed in half a century and Harry Potter_, Ollivander thought to himself. Voldemort was finally going to be overcome. He poured himself a drink and toasted the new millennia.

The eight young people finally arrived at the Three Broomsticks and sat down at a corner booth. "So, uh, Xander. How are you holding up?" Willow cautiously asked, not wanting to upset her friend. Xander looked up at her, and sighed. "Ask me after I've read the big Book of Xanders. I just don't know yet". He then grabbed his stuff and politely excused himself for a while. "Should someone go after him?" Ron gestured, "he seems to be a little upset, and I don't want anything to happen to him - he seems like a good guy." "Don't worry, we'll let him go through the quick stages of denial and anger and then go get him in time for sadness and acceptance." Dawn chirped "it should take about an hour so can we eat already?" The rumble of someone's stomach was answer enough, and the waitress came over to take their orders. They ate with a sort of joie de vivre that came from ignoring the bad and focusing on the good.

After the late lunch, they ordered drinks and Andrew pulled out a small package that he quickly had one of the trio enlarge. He had bought the Harry Potter Series and accompanying books for Hermione, a set of the five movies for Harry (as a joke) and the Gryffindor Polo shirt that had Weasely 01 on the back for Ron. The trio found these gag gifts rather amusing, but also a little disturbing. Hermione was intrigued. After thanking them, and giving them some advice on getting along with the various professors, they decided it was time for one of them to get Xander.

* * *

Xander had wandered into a coffee shop called Common Ground which was much more modern than the Three Broomsticks. It was all black and blue with brushed metal accents here and there. He ordered a wet cappuccino with a splash of Irish cream in it and leaned back to ponder his new situation and his new title. _Mage._ Catching sight of his cherry docs, he looked down at himself and realized just how much he had changed in the last year. After Anya had died, he had taken a long look at himself and realized that he needed to become more Alexander (completely comfortable with himself) and less Xander (the zeppo). Slowly his wardrobe, his attitude and his confidence acclimated to the new Alexander that emerged while taking classes, clubbing and, in general, living in LA. Today he was wearing the cherry docs he was originally going to buy for Spike after the war, a pair of trendy blue jeans with the front bleached in certain spots, a black belt that had silver studs along the sides and a white t-shirt that had the Chinese character for dragon done in cherry red and black. His hair matched perfectly with its cherry red streaks and actually had gel in it. As Spike would say, he was a pouf. But he was happier. He had also come to the conclusion, through some unique experiences in the past year, that he was maybe a tad bent when it came to his sexuality. Spike would have been right in calling him a pouf. A year and a half ago this would have sent him into a fission of fear, but now, he just accepted the fact that love went way beyond sex. He had tried the sex thing with Anya, and it really hadn't worked out how he wanted it to so now he was looking for something beyond that. He ducked into his backpack and unearthed his laptop and his new wand and entered the word "mage" on the search engine. He was so engrossed in his work that he didn't notice a tall blond man approach him until he sat down and introduced himself. 

As _Draco Malfoy_.

Xander's head popped up when he heard the name and watched as the man smiled, held out his hand, and repeated himself, "Hello, my name is Draco Malfoy, may I sit here?" Xander, shocked, looked around at all the empty seats and then looked back at the man in front of him with confusion in his eyes. He then shrugged, said "sure" and shook his hand anyways. It was a nice handshake. Draco looked at the computer and said, "Muggle?" to which Xander vaguely replied, "a little of this, a little of that". Truly he did not know Mr. Malfoy, and he was not about to trust someone just because of how good looking they were. Even if they were spectacular. Draco was dressed in grey pants that had to be designer because they clung to all the right places, and a soft black fitted button up. The sunglasses he had perched in his white blond hair had to be Prada and his eyes were almost steel. He wore sandals on his feet that had to be Kenneth Cole's new line.

The old Xander might have been completely straight but Alex was quite happy being bent. He looked back up into those gorgeous gray eyes.

"So you're Draco Malfoy" Xander said with a faintly flirtatious smile.

"As far as I know - and why do you say my name like you're familiar with it?"

"Har-" but before Xander could get out the answer Draco had interrupted.

"Ah, our illustrious hero Harry Potter talked about me. Interesting..."

"No, that's not it. If you had waited one second I was going to explain that in the muggle world they've written a series of books on Harry Potter. You're in them," here, Xander paused for dramatic flair and then added "you're the villain - or at least one of them." with a smirk.

"So I'm an impatient man sometimes...I promise you I'm not always." Draco said with a lascivious wink. "So I'm a villain? That's quite funny"

"Well, you're the lesser villain. Your dad and Voldemorte tend to take centerstage when it comes to badness. You're just a little bit bad. Actually you're just kind of a spoiled brat...but that's okay because you're only a teenager when the books take place..." Xander trailed off hoping that he hadn't insulted the man with his explanation. 

"A brat?" Draco exclaimed, "Someone called me a brat in a book that lots of muggles read!" Here he chuckled, which relieved the brunette. "Oh, Lucius will not be pleased. Excellent." The blonde paused. "Well, I guess I was sort of a brat when I was younger. And my father and Voldemorte are much scarier than me," he mused to himself aloud."I mean really, they sort of corner the market on maiming and torturing. Ah well." He refocused his attention on the man in front of him.

"I heard that you're partners with Ron Weasley. In the books you guys hate each other." Xander's curiousity had been piqued.

"Well, Weasely and I came to a sort of truce a couple of years back. I wouldn't judge him on the accomplishments of his family, and he wouldn't judge me on the mistakes made by mine. We even share a pint now and then, when he gets tired of Granger and Potter." Draco added, thinking back to the last time he and Weasley went for drinks. God, that man had drunk him under the table! Who knew that Weasley's were so resistant.

"So", he continued, "What's a muggle doing in Hogsmeade unattended? It's not a safe thing to do right now, even during the day." Oddly enough, Draco felt protective of this man he just met. He wanted to get to know this guy to find out why he was evoking such an odd emotion in him. 

"Oh don't worry, I have one of the strongest witches in the world to get my back. Don't worry about me."

And at that exact moment, Willow chose to waltz into the store to collect Xander.

He groaned to himself, "Speak of the devil, and she comes," and packed his computer and wand. Then, with a very pointed look and slight inclination of his head, sent Willow scurrying out ahead of him. 

Draco was astounded by the power emanating from Willow, and it took a second for him to collect his thoughts. He grabbed Xanders hand before he could leave and said with a grin, "Could I get your name at the very least, luv?" Xander looked over his shoulder at Draco and, coming to a quick decision, said "Alexander LaVelle" and left a shocked Draco in his wake.

* * *

Because Draco knew the old stories. He had learned the mythology of the magic folk as every good Malfoy did. He knew of things that people thought were imaginary. Of pointed ears and long swords. And now he had proof. Yes. He had chosen the right side. It would still come to war, but the light would win.

* * *

Outside, Xander met up with the rest of the scoobies and gloated, "Hey guys, guess who I met?" "Besides the gorgeous blonde guy?" Willow asked with a cheeky grin. "Nope, not besides him. That was Draco Malfoy. Isn't that great?" Xander was still reeling from the chemistry that flashed between them everytime they touched. He couldn't get the smile off of his face. "And Andrew, Dawn, I win the bet. The first thing out of his lips was not to ask whether or not I was a muggle like you both thought...you forget he has to be polite in public. The first thing out of his mouth was an introduction and the second was whether or not he could sit across from me" Xander said, happy at both winning the bet, and being the first to meet him. "Let me guess, then he asked whether you were a muggle," Ron said with a bit of a playful grimace. When you were Auror partners, you had to know your partner very very well. And Ron was good at what he did. "Yeah...that's true." Xander pondered this while the others exchanged money. "So what's the big deal with Malfoy anyways? He won't even fight for the light." Harry asked, confused. Xander rolled his eyes at Harry. The group from Sunnydale explained the amusement in meeting an "evil villain" in real life. The trio didn't get it, and chalked it up to an American thing.

By that time they had made their way to the 3 W's. Otherwise known as Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, it had bought out Zonko's joke shop and was always heavily populated by young children - even during the summer months. Ron lead the crew to the back where he met up with his brothers Fred and George. After being shown the latest in wizarding candies, trying a few old ones out, and having Andrew turn into a kitten (this was not one of Andrew's better days) shed, and then return to his normal state, an owl showed up instructing them all to attend an important order meeting that night. Even the scoobies were to be there. This put a damper on the mood and so they all decided to call it a day and the trio returned with the Scoobies to Hogwarts.

Reactions and Recognition Back at Hogwarts, the company parted ways: Harry, Ron and Hermione went to visit Dumbledore and the other five retired to their rooms to digest all of the information they had gleaned today. They all had been shocked at Ollivanders with the discovery of Xander's mage status. Some adjustments had to be made, and research and training would have to be done. Perceptions shifted and yet life went on. Change really was a fascinating phenomenon/p>

For Buffy, it was the discovery that once again, she had failed to keep Xander away from magic. This adventure was supposed to be straightforward: Find this guy Voldemort and his minions, get Willow to stop them from doing whatever they did, and then step in and kick their collective death eater asses. Simple really, right? But it had become complicated. Xander had already been changing, but now she was a little afraid that he would become unrecognizable. He was powerful now, and soon wouldn't need her help at all. Buffy felt a little relief when she realized that she had one less person to worry about. She began feeling a little bit better about the whole situation. However,she realized that subconsciously, she felt some jealousy as well, because she was accustomed to being the sole warrior. She would have to get over that if she was to keep his friendship, she mused to herself. 

For Dawn and Andrew, it was just a matter of being impressed and excited for Xander. They might have been envious that he had "come into his own" but in the end they were simply happy for him.

Willow was both happy and anxious for her friend. Unbeknownst to Xander, she had gone back to Ollivander's to reassure herself that the temptation to the dark side would not happen to Xander. He reminded her that mages were purely warriors for the light, and that if Xander was to turn to the dark side, his powers would be naturally stripped from him. His powers would simply disappear. She thought that that was a good thing. Mr. Ollivander also informed her very politely, that it was Alexander LaVelle's place to do the research; after all he had the tools, and that the best thing for her to do as a Witch was help him develop. The better thing for her to do, however, was be there for him. With that, the old store keeper left her to collect Xander from the coffee shop. Now, in her room, she meditated on the problem for a while and decided that the old adage was true. She would not walk behind him, for he may not lead, she would not walk ahead of him, for he may not follow, so she would just walk beside him and be his friend. 

* * *

Alexander LaVelle Harris felt like he didn't know himself anymore. He was having an identity crisis of major proportions. "Damnit!" he yelled. He ran his fingers through his hair. "I thought the big shit was over since the defeat of the First, I thought I was just going to lead a normal life...and now I'm officially a warrior...and if that wasn't enough, I'm fucking Elven..." he yelled. "Elven! How dumb is that? If the other scoobies find this out they're gonna [hit] freak [smack] right [pound] out! [growl]. He needed to get out of the castle. He shucked off his clothes, pulled shorts, a long sleeved t shirt, and his running shoes on and tore out of the castle for a cathartic run. 

After running a few miles to reduce his stress level, he actually was able to think. The anger and denial pouring out of him each step left only the truth to be dealt with. He went through the facts. First, he was in a niche of the world that based itself around magic. Second, he was a mage. Third, being a mage meant that he was indeed both magic and at least a little bit Elf. He felt the tips of his ears as he ran. Nope, still round. Fourth, he, the Sunnydale crew and the three musketeers had to defeat an evil wizard with the combination of their powers. This was serious. 

He thought of past battles and realized that, although he had definitely participated in the fighting, he had often been paired up with someone stronger or more magical for his own good. Oh, it wasn't as if his talents weren't utilized (usually pertaining to some form of modern weaponry or another)it was just that he had been so limited. In Sunnydale, his strength was limited by his normality, and his magic was negligible. He fought as hard as he could, but the fact of the matter was, without Buffy, Spike,or Willow around, he wouldn't be alive today. Now he had power. He could feel it in the ground beneath him, in the air around him, seeping into him. It was as if a conduit had been opened when he first touched the wand, and it had remained open ever since. He knew instinctively that this could not be closed, even if he decided to not use his powers. His magic. If he fought, he was going to be fighting Voldemorte on the front lines with no one to protect him this time. Indeed he would have to be the protector this time. 

'Okay,' he thought to himself. That's the situation. Now what are my options, he thought to himself. One - I can simply leave. Two - I can stay and at least do the normal Xander thing which is to get beaten up, but at least fight like a human. He dismissed this one as ridiculous right away. Three - I can accept this and try to become an Elven War Mage. Xander stopped running and sighed. Obviously he would have to choose the third option. "Well, Alex, it's time to start your new life." The decision had been made. As he ran back he decided that he didn't, after all, have to tell the others about the Elven part.

* * *

Alex got back into the rooms and took a nice hot relaxing bath. He had made his decision. Now all that mattered was following through. He grabbed some indigo died jeans, a white T-shirt and his grey suede button down shirt and put it on. He threaded the black leather belt with the brushed silver plaque buckle through the belt loops and slipped on his comfy leather flip flops. First impressions meant a great deal, he knew from experience, and he had to convince a whole room full of people to have confidence in his abilities. He then packed his computer, his book and his wand into his black Italian messenger back and walked down to the library to see if he could learn to charm his hair back to a more sedate color before dinner. 

Within half an hour he had the charm down pat with a little help from Andrew and Dawn. He had bumped into them on the way to the library, and they had decided to come with him. They were excited about their wands and kept on whipping them out and pointing them at random things a la Quick Draw McDraw. When they got to the library, they found a basic charms book, and his hair was now brownish black to match his outfit, Dawn's hair was bright cherry red, to match the punk look she was sporting, and Andrew's was all royal blue to match Dawn. Xander suddenly had a memory of an old friend pop up and when Andrew was distracted, changed his hair back to it's normal color with blue highlights to appease his mind. He then turned back to his book and focused his attention on the history of his heritage, losing himself in the stories of warrior after warrior battling for the light against wizards, demons, witches, succubae...you name it, there were warriors fighting it. In a time long gone, they rode on Dragon steeds. When that was no longer plausible they fought on horse. And when those didn't work, they would fight on the ground, with no advantage and sometimes to their disadvantage. They fought tirelessly and for a cause. He felt that he wasn't possibly worthy of the name LaVelle. But he would be.

The alarm on his computer went off, and he realized it was time to meet again in the Great Hall. He packed up, got Dawn and Andrew's attention, and they all walked to dinner together, him wrapped up in his own little world, and Dawn and Andrew wrapped up in their little world. 

They were pleased to see that Hermione, Harry, and Ron had decided to join them, and so they once again commandeered one end of the high table in order to more easily converse. Willow opted to be the one to sit next to Snape. It seemed that they had some interests in common, and the conversation flowed fairly consistantly between them. Andrew and Dawn had adopted Hermione into their discussion of Science versus Magic, which left Ron, Harry, and Xander to their own devices. Well... honestly, it left Alex a little out of the picture, after all, Ron and Harry were old friends and could talk endlessly about anything. Or rather Harry talked while Ron put in his two cents here and there. After observing the people surrounding him for a while, he decided to do a little multi-tasking and pulled out his laptop, surfing for websites that pertained to Elven and Mage lore while he ate.

Since dinner was finished right before meeting time, the professors and guests slowly meandered to the meeting room, breaking off into small parties to discuss this or that. Dumbledore, however, elected to stay at the back of the crowd with Alex. "Alexander LaVelle Harris, I heard that there are some changes in your life; how would you like me to introduce you to the rest of the order?" Dumbledore asked. Though Xander completely mistook Dumbledore's question, the Headmaster took his answer seriously "Well, I've been thinking of maybe going back to Alexander or Alex for short and using LaVelle as my last name. I have no ties to any Harris's to worry about. Why don't you introduce me as Alexander LaVelle." Xander (now officially Alex) replied. "Ah, my dear boy, I see you have many adventures ahead of you. Had I known of your existence earlier...well, I shall not think about what shall not be, War Mage LaVelle." Dumbledore smiled. "Who told you about that?" Xander was shocked that Dumbledore already knew about his status when he himself had only found out that day. He was rather upset that someone had told what was his story to tell. "Please don't be too displeased Alexander, Ollivander is on our side and merely wanted me to understand why you were brought here." Dumbledore gently consoled "Now my dear boy, we are at the meeting room. I fear we shall have to take this conversation up at a later date." With a mischievous smile, Dumbledore turned and maneuvered his way to the head of the crowded room.

* * *

The room was set up in the same way very small lecture halls are generally set up. There were three long tables which went from one end of the room to the other. The first one was level with the front podium, the next table was up a level, and the next table was up another level. This allowed everybody to see the speaker. However the furnishings were extravagent and lush. The deep mahogany tables were beautifully bordered in carvings of vines, and the matching chairs were cushioned in either red, blue, green or black velvet. The curtains in the room were draped in blue velvet, and the floor was laid down with beautiful blue Persian rugs on a perfectly finished wood floor. In the corner of the room, there were maps laid out of the different known strongholds of Voldemort, detailed and built to scale and on one wall were the names of known death eaters. Opposite to that were the names of the dead. Though morbid, it did get the point across. This was not fun, this was war. Personally, Alex thought it was a bit much. After all of the battles he had fought, all the apocalypses the scoobies had averted, and all the baddies they had beaten, he knew that it was important to not get too caught up in the darkness. You had to have hope as well. 

He looked around the room and saw a huge bay window and then, rather rashly cranked the curtains open to watch the gorgeous sunset. Dawn and Andrew then proceeded to tie them wide open - reinforcing the message. Hope was needed. He then walked to the back of the room, straddled a chair, and pulled out his laptop again. So was research. The room quieted down at this enigmatic act and the meeting was started.

Dumbledore had already let the members know of new arrivals that would aid in the fight against Voldemort so the introductions were, for the most part brief.

"This is Buffy Summers. She is a slayer and has survived longer than any longer slayer in history. She has, with the help of numerous friends, including those you see here, averted apocalypses, slain demons and vampires nightly, and defeated the First Evil. 

This is Dawn Summers. She does the research for the group, and also fights alongside of them. We will be training her magic.

This is Andrew Wills. He helps with the research, records happenings, and fights alongside of the group as well. He is well-versed in technology, but needs to be trained in magic.

This is Willow Rosenberg. She is a powerful wand less witch. She, too, does some of the research, but focuses most of her energy on defensive spells and potions.

This is Alexander LaVelle. He also aids in the research, and the fighting. As of recently he has discovered that he has an aptitude for magic and we will be there not to teach but to support his magic growth. He is an Elven Mage of the family LaVelle." The room exploded. 

Dumbledore waited for the noise to pass, and then moved on to the meeting at hand, doling out assignment to various people, and updating his information on the movements of death eaters. Until they could have a fairly permanent location, no attack was to be made and a call was made in need of people to create and augment defensive spells. Spies were sent back out, and Animagus's were sent to sniff around for more information.

Alex and the rest of the Scoobies collected in the back and talked about the night's meeting. "Elven?" Willow said with a quiet squeal, "You didn't tell us that! Oh and what's this about the name Alexander LaVelle...are you serious about this? Do you, like, want to change your name?" Alex let out a small sigh. "I'm only like a quarter Elven. I don't even have the pointy ears. And the name change is actually not that new. My life has changed a lot in the past year or so. I no longer feel like Xander Harris the Zeppo. I'm not attached to the name Harris anymore, for one thing, and for another, I happen to like the name Alex for professional reasons. I've been using the name Alexander LaVelle for the past year at school and...other places. I just didn't want to hurt you guys at all" Alex shrugged. Willow smiled a rather tremulous smile and said," okay Alex, but you'll still have my yellow crayon right?" He laughed and reassured her of their always continuing friendship.

By now the room was quite empty, and the scoobies were dismissed. Dawn and Andrew went to their rooms to play computer games, and Buffy and Willow went to train. Both groups had asked if Alex wanted to tag along, but he just wanted to go to his room, crawl into his sueded jersey pants and then into his warm cozy bed. He got as far as his portrait when a hand landed lightly on his arm, and startled him out of his silent reverie. 


	3. Date with a Dragon

* * *

Thanks for the reviews Madness and Mia. They made me giggle. 

* * *

Date with a Dragon

By now the room was quite empty, and the scoobies were dismissed. Dawn and Andrew went to their rooms to play computer games, and Buffy and Willow went to train. Both groups had asked if Alex wanted to tag along, but he just wanted to go to his room, crawl into his sueded jersey pants and then into his warm cozy bed. He got as far as his portrait when a hand landed lightly on his arm, and forced him to turn around. He started in surprise at the sight of Draco Malfoy. "So, shall I call you Legolas?" Draco said with a roguish grin. "Uh, no thanks - hey, how did you know about that...it was supposed to be kept quiet!" Alex was all of a sudden very aware of everything that was going on around him. He truly did not know this guy, and although they were pretty much the same build, all Alex could do with his wand was change the color of one's hair. Not very effective. Quickly, Draco saw that he had unsettled Alex, and set out to make amends. "Well, to be honest, I knew as soon as I heard your last name. The Malfoy family library is rather extensive and there are a few books on historical magic. But I think, to truly put your mind at ease, I'm going to have to tell you that I was at the order meeting today. Dumbledore required me to go in case I had any more insight into my father's demented life." Draco grinned ruefully, "...and seeing as I'm not even one step closer to understanding his worship of Voldemort, I decided to leave early and find your room. Please believe me when I tell you that you're so much more interesting than this bloody war." Alex was still wary but he had to admit he was charmed. "Draco? I actually find the concept of a magic Wizarding War pretty fascinating -- it's not exactly the "norm" where I come from." Alex finished with another grin. "And where do you come from? Though you're a mage, you obviously were born muggle - American." The blonde was quite curious. "Californian, I'm from California." Alex responded, trying to figure out if Draco was insulting him or not. He was still a little unsure of Drano's intentions, even if it was quite obvious that there was some harmless flirtation going on, and some fabulous chemistry flowing. Alex figured that the best thing to do would be to get to know this intriguing man so, after only a slight bit of hesitation, he invited Draco for a walk around the school. Draco accepted.

They wandered around in silence for the first bit, both surreptitiously glancing at the other. They were both handsome young men and the portraits let them know this in no uncertain terms. Alex was the first to speak

"So Draco, I told you that in the Harry Potter books, you were always one of the evil villains. Why did you change?"

"You don't start with the easy questions, do you?" Draco said grimly. 

"No, I start with the important ones...I need to know that my friends are trustworthy"

"Am I to be a...friend then?"

"Cute. But you're going to answer the question."

"Fine." Draco stopped walking. " Voldemort is hideous, unintelligent, and insane. I suspected a long time ago that he would not win the war, so I took my inheritance and ran to the other side" the wizard spat out angrily, "I had no intentions of bowing to a snake and certainly no intentions of marring my skin with something that resembles a black blob of ink in order to be at his beck and call." The blonde paused in order to calm down, "Does that answer your question?"

"Yeah, pretty much. Are you going to fight with us?"

"Honestly? Probably not. My talent lies in other directions" Malfoy said with a licentious smirk. The other man rolled his eyes so he continued, "Severus and I spend most of our time creating defensive potions to use out in the field. However I can't say for sure. I'm an auror, so if the time comes and I'm needed, I guess I will." There was a pause as the Scooby digested this. "Fair enough" commented Alex. "Okay you've used up your alloted amount of questions with the weight of those two. It's my turn." Draco smiled a vulpine smile.

"Are you single?"

"Yeah, I am" a slow smile crossed Alex's lips. This was a nice turn of events.

"Good. What's your favorite food?"

"Lasagna. But shouldn't you be asking me if we 'bat for the same team'?"

"bat for the same team?...oh" Draco chuckled, "Alex, no offense, but any man who has a Prada messenger bag and charms his hair to match his outfit probably 'rides his broom on the other side.'"

"Oh...okay" Alex felt his cheeks redden. 

"Back to the questions now, luv. Do you like to dance? Can you dance?"

"Yeah, I like to dance...and I guess I can dance fairly well..._now_" he added the last word under his breath. Unfortunately Draco caught it. "There's a story there, isn't there?" He smirked, "Let me guess, you were a muggle caught in hard times and became a stripper for cash." This was a popular story line for muggle jokes.

"Next question" Alex strangled out. Draco shot an incredulous look at him but didn't push it. 

"Okay next question, then. Would you like to go out with me on Friday night?" Draco wasn't one to let opportunity slip through his fingers. This man was enigmatic, and he wanted to solve the puzzle that was Alexander LaVelle.

"Yeah, I'd like that." Xander replied with surprise. "But please bear in mind that I'm not quite used to Wizarding dating"

"umm, Alex? It's really not any different…there are no weird customs or chants." He laughed, "In fact, we'll portkey to muggle London, if it makes you feel better."

"It actually does make me feel better although I hate the sensation of portkeying." He mumbled to himself. "Then again…I should just check... erm, you've never been a demon, right? Or rather, you're not one right now, are you?"

` Draco was amused but a little worried that the good - looking man in front of him was in the first stages of dementia. "No. Not since I last checked, but why would you ask?" Alex sank his head into his hands, "I have sort of a history of attracting them. You try and dating normal people on the Hell Mouth" he said miserably. The blonde didn't think he had heard right "You lived on a Bouche D'enfer? Fuck!" Draco was astounded that Alex sounded so casual about this.

All of a sudden Xander was tired. Images crashed through his mind of fires and death and destruction. He wanted to crawl into bed and hide again. Draco watched the pain flow through this beautiful man's eyes and saw him support himself on the wall. "Hey, hey," Draco started softly, "Let's get you back to your room. You must be wiped, spending time with the Golden Trio, then going to an Order meeting and finally, walking around with me. Let's get you back to your rooms" Xander shot a grateful smile at the wizard and allowed himself to lean on the man beside him. Plus, he thought to himself, there was the added benefit of the feel of Draco's arm around him and the warmth of the shoulders under his own arm, in taking up this man's offer of support. They walked like this, in silence once again until they got to his room. They turned to each other and let their hands drop. Draco grazed his knuckles against Alex's cheek, winked and said "Good night, my dark elf." He then turned on his heel and left.

Alex whispered the password to his room and got ready with a smile on his face. He had a date with a non demonic, gorgeous guy. Yes! He pulled on his pajamas and was asleep in moments.

* * *

The next morning Alex woke up refreshed and energetic and therefore decided that he had to get three things accomplished that day: find someone to help him train, work on school work, and finish the next 3 chapters in his family tome. He threw on a pair of jeans and the blue and gray Ravenclaw polo shirt he found in the closet, shoved on a pair of sneakers, and left in search of Dumbledore. 

With some help from the local portraits, he found the entrance to the office quite easily. However, opening the gargoyle was an entirely different matter. He seemed to recall from the books that the passwords Dumbledore used were candies, however that was the books and not necessarily reality. After trying various candies and words, he leaned his head against the wall in frustration. "Please open up, Damnit, I just want to talk to him" With an audible 'snick' the gargoyle swung around to expose a set of stairs. Alex ran up them thankfully. 

Dumbledore was sitting at his desk with several piles of paper in front of him, writing notes and signing papers. He looked up at the new Mage with a greeting. "Alex, I was expecting you a little later! We need to discuss training, do we not?" 

"Yeah, I was wondering if you could recommend someone who would teach defensive spells to me. The book indicates that I need to teach most of the stuff to myself, but it also indicates that a proper Wizard or Witch may be able to guide me in some of the basic defensive spells. Do you have someone in mind?" Alex asked. Dumbledore looked pensive for a moment and then said, "Ron Weasely is my primary choice. He has grown into a patient young man and I know that he has a strong background in defensive spells due to his friendship with Harry. Though he is an Auror, he should be able to take an hour or so each night to work with you. Would that do?" The young man was a little worried. He knew that there was no love lost between Ron and Draco. However, he wasn't going to let that stand in the way, if Ron was the best teacher for him. "Yes that will be fine." Dumbledore looked satisfied. "My dear boy, would you like to accompany me to breakfast this morning?" he asked quite graciously. Xander realized he was starving and looked up with a grin, "Sure Headmaster Dumbledore."

They made their way to the great hall and sat down with the staff and the other scoobies. Dawn and Andrew were sitting together again this morning. He wondered if they meant to dress similarly. Dawn was wearing an A-line brown suede skirt with a long-sleeved fine knit wraparound black sweater and black boots, and Andrew was wearing blue jeans, a white t-shirt with a brown suede shirt overtop. It was amusing.

Across the table sat Willow and Snape, who were a study in contrasts. Willow in her dark jewel toned clothes and Snape in his black and grey; they managed to bring the uniqueness out in each other. Buffy seemed, for the first time, to be happy just being alone. After almost bringing out Angelus again, she really needed space to be herself. Alex believed that she was probably pretty happy to find out that he had powers now; he could finally protect himself, rather than her always looking out for him. He turned back to his breakfast and concentrated on the yummy waffles in front of him. 

At the end of breakfast the owls flew in, startling him once again. Although it had only been three days, he figured he needed to get used to this odd type of communication fast. A small owl landed in a tumble on to the napkin in front of him, and he saw that the note attached was for him. With all the scoobies looking on in great delight at the cute owl, he untied the letter from Ron and freed the little bird. It said: 

__
    
    
    Alex,
    I received an owl from Dumbledore last night which asked me if I would tutor you in some defenses
    against the dark arts. I know nothing about mage magic, but I have no problem with wizard defensive
    spells. I get off of work at four thirty, and can meet you in the Ravenclaw common room by five
    tomorrow. If this works for you, send Pigwidgeon back. Say hi to the 'scoobies' from me (I watched
    that cartoon while at Hermione's last summer so I caught the reference)
    -Ron
    

Xander was grateful that he didn't have to find the owlery quite yet. He didn't think he wanted to do so right after breakfast. The big owls kind of unsettled him. He also thought that Dumbledore knew just way too much. He let the bitty owl rest on his napkin while he wrote a quick letter of acceptance, and then sent it on it's way. By then, the teachers had left Willow, Dawn and Andrew, Buffy, and Xander to themselves.

Dawn grinned, "So Xander, who's the note from? The gorgeous blonde you were walking with last night?"

"Alex," Willow pinned Dawn with a look, "was with someone last night?"

"What blonde? Who was she?" Buffy asked. 

"or he!" Willow added with another pointed look, trying her best to respect her friends' wishes.

"Geez guys, give me a break. The letter was from Ron, he's going to tutor me in Defense against the Dark Arts." Alex said with a laugh.

"But Ron's a gorgeous red head..." Buffy realized what she had said and blushed.

"Really Buff, you interested? He's tutoring me, I could put in some good words?"

"Ha Ha Alexander LaVelle. We're not in high school anymore. Shut Up" The blonde shot back. "And I see you've avoided the question…c'mon tell us" "OH!" Willow clapped her hand over her mouth as she realized who it was. She turned to her best friend. "No way! You're kidding me...Is he nice? He'd better be nice if he's dating you. You don't need any more demons or cheerleaders..."

Dawn was ticked, "Who is it, Dammit,Why am I the last to know anything. Please tell me Xanderrrrr," she whinged, while giving him her best puppy dog look. Yeah he was a sucker for it, but she was like his kid sister, so it was okay that he was a pushover. "It's Draco Malfoy" Xander smirked. "What!" Buffy, Andrew and Dawn all said collectively. "Yeah, apparently he was at the meeting last night. When I went back to my rooms, he was waiting at the portrait for me. We walked and talked. We're going out on the weekend" The brunette shrugged. "He seems really nice and sweet, I figured what the hell? At the very least, he's not a demon, and he's on our side." "So do I need to give him the shovel talk?" Willow asked with a grin. "No, not yet at least. I don't want to jump the gun here, guys. It's only one date." He smiled and decided to get his revenge. "So Willow, Snape seems like a pretty big guy. Should I take Buffy with me when I give him the shovel talk?" "Uh, Alex, he's pretty much afraid of me. He mumbled something about being a wand less witch and being touched by the dark side. Man, I understand that I screwed up, but I've been able to keep my magic under control for the past two years! How sucky...and all this 'wandless' stuff is dumb. Who care if you use a stick - no offense guys- or not. All that matters is that the magic gets done. And yes, Snape agrees with that, and he agrees with lots of the things I say, but he doesn't seem to be attracted to me...and I'm supposed to be gay anyways so this all doesn't matter..." Willow stopped babbling with a distressed look. Alex felt bad. "Ah Wills, it'll work out if it's meant to." He decided to change the topic. "What about you two," he said to Dawn and Andrew, "You do realize you match right? Are you guys going to finally admit your torrid love affair?" "Xan- Alex! My sister is too young to have sordid love affairs!" Buffy exclaimed. "One, I didn't say sordid, I said torrid. And two, she's as old as I was when I met Anya. She's 18, Andrew is 22, they're fine." He then turned to the two in question. "So, what's up guys. Are you guys together or what? Dawn and Andrew looked embarrassed. "We haven't really talked about it." Andrew said, with a quick glance at Dawn. Then he smiled and added, "but when we figure it out, we'll give each other the shovel talk" Dawn grinned and very clearly said, "Next topic!" 

Alex got up. "Actually guys, I'm off to the library to work on my architecture homework and read LaVelle. Anybody on their way there?" The rest of the scoobies decided to follow his lead and do research and homework. 

* * *

The morning passed quite quickly, considering the fact that everyone had homework to do. It was an interesting sight: five young people, each at a laptop, in a library that had to be centuries old and had probably never been redecorated, except for the addition of recently written or acquired books. A house elf brought food to the library (Madame Pinze was nowhere to be found) and they spent the afternoon doing research on Voldemort, the villages and people he targeted, and the people he chose to become Death Eaters. By the time Alex had to go meet Ron, they were pretty familiar with the basic problem and realized that they now had to create a plan of defense and attack. Well, the scoobies were used to that. 

Xander left Dawn and Andrew reading books on defensive spells, and Willow attempting to figure out some sort of defenses for Avada Kadavra, Crucio and Imperio. He assured them that he would come collect them in time for dinner and then went to go meet Ron in the Ravenclaw Common Room. Ron reminded Alex of Oz for some reason. In the books he was happy, hyper and talkative. In person he was pretty reserved around most people except for Harry and Hermione. However, he was a nice enough guy, and a great teacher. Within the hour, the mage knew _expelliarmus_, _brouillard d'esprit_,_ manille d'esprit_ among some simpler hexes and charms. It was a start. Ron seemed pleased at the progress. At six, the wizard flooed back to his and Harry's apartment, and Alex went to the library to pick up his friends for dinner and to pick up his things which he had left earlier. They ate their dinner quickly, and then went back to the library. The Hogwarts teachers were impressed at the commitment, but had doubts whether it would continue once the scoobies encountered a stumbling block. 

That evening, after he had taught the new spells to the matching friends, Xander brought up the fact that he wasn't the only one with untrained magic. Dawn and Andrew might as well get started on some defensive spells as well. It was decided that Dawn and Andrew would owl Ron that night and ask him if he would, for an additional fee, tutor all three of them. The rest of the night was spent reading. Dawn was reading Destroying Dark Wizards, Andrew was reading Dark Wizards and their Downfalls, Buffy - Damning the Dark Wizards, and Willow was reading, Ye Olde Dark Wizard Grimoire. Alex decided that he really needed to read LaVelle. At about midnight the group broke up with some new ideas and old headaches, and decided to meet at the great hall tomorrow morning again at 8AM to do their university work for the morning. 

Alex went running again. He just didn't quite understand what was special about himself. Oh, he had okay self esteem, but this Elven Warrior Mage thing seemed a little much for plain old Alex to be capable of. He all of a sudden remembered the summer Buffy "quit" slaying and mentally slapped himself. He now understood a bit more why she left and then came bacIt was exactly the same. He had to do what he was called to do just as Buffy had. Such was life. He got back to the castle, went to his room and, after toeing off his rather expensive running shoes, collapsing fully clothed on his bed. He was really fuckin' tired.

* * *

Alexander LaVelle woke up on the wrong side of the bed the next morning. The shower was so cold that he almost slipped when he backed away from the spray. He couldn't find the art history books he needed to write a paper on and when he did find them on top of the armoire, he swore he didn't put them there. The shirt he wanted to wear had a stain on it, and when he finally escaped his room, Peeves was following him singing, 
    
    _
    LaVelle, LaVelle, the Elven King
    S'posed to save us, but knows nothing
    Can he do it? Is he able?
    Or is this all some dumb fable.
    _

The Poltergeist left him alone when he got to Breakfast, thank goodness. He noticed Dawn and Andrew holding hands, and felt a little better. They deserved to be happy. Well, at least Dawn did. 'Again with the matching outfits' he thought to himself, "Hey Dawndrew, didja know you match again" he called. They looked down at each other and then blushed simultaneously. Andrew was decked out in jeans, a white t-shirt, and a white button down, and Dawn, a jean skirt and a fitted white button down. It was uncanny. The group settled down and did school work for the morning in the great hall and then after lunch retired to the library. At five, Andrew, Dawn, and Alex went to meet Ron for tutoring, and after realizing that Alex naturally picked up magic faster, decided to mainly watch the new spells being learned, take notes, and then practice the new spells later. The system worked fairly well. The scoobies then met up for dinner, retired to the library for a 'research party' and were in bed by 12. Alex had decided that late night runs were bad for early morning Karma and resolved to run before breakfast.

This schedule seemed to hold for the next few days, and the scoobies had actually come up with some interesting defensive and offensive ideas for the Order of the Phoenix to look over. By Thursday afternoon Willow had found a counter to Crucio. It was Estasio and it demanded a great deal of effort. Estasio shot currents of exquisite pleasure through your body to force out the negative energy that Crucio produced. It was by no means a spell that everyone could do, but when she went around testing it, most of the professors were able to cast it. They decided to celebrate, and did so by taking the night off. The five of them flooed to the Three Broomsticks, went through the Leaky Cauldron to a Dance Club called Alpha-Omega, and danced the night away. When they returned at midnight, they were still tipsy and unstoppably giggly. The ghosts avoided them and Peeves even was reluctant to poke fun, knowing that the group would turn their wicked humor back on him. It was 2 am when the Scoobies got themselves into bed. As soon as Alex laid down, he was disturbed by a tapping at his window. Not knowing what else to do, he grabbed his wand, and threw open the window hoping it was a tree branch or something. It was a large owl carrying a note. The owl stood still while he untied the note and then flew away. Weird. "I thought they were supposed to stick around until you were done reading," he grunted. The note was from Draco.
    
    _
    Alex,
    I hope this letter finds you well. I just wanted to let you know that I'll pick you up at your
    portrait at 7:00PM tomorrow for our date. Casual dress is fine. Sleep well.
    Draco
    _

A large smile crossed the brunettes lips. He had a date. He went to sleep with that on his mind and dreamed of beautiful blondes doing rather epicurean things. 

The Date

Suffice it to say Alex woke up late. All the scoobies woke up late, true, but not all of them woke up late with a head ache, a hangover and yet smiled all through breakfast. After watching the young people suffer all through breakfast, Mme Pomfrey surreptitiously cast de-hangover spells on them while on her way out of the Great Hall. They thanked her profusely. Then they turned on Xander. "So, care to tell us why you're all Guy Smilie today?" chirped Dawn. He blushed, "well I got a letter last night from Draco that kinda reassured me that I still had a date tonight. I was beginning to wonder...I really wish cell phones could be charmed to work here." Buffy cut in, "you're not nervous are you?" She asked.

"Well, yeah, kind of. It's been ages since I've been on a date." 

"But what about that guy who you brought home a couple of times weren't you dating him? What was his name again...oh yeah Brian. He was in advertising wasn't he...what about him?" Willow asked, not seeing the mage's facial attempts to get her to shut up.

"Uh Willow, we weren't exactly dating...we were just...together"

"oh. Oh. Oops." She replied, embarassed at her niavete.

"No Prob. He was pining after some guy in Pennsylvania anyways. Go figure" he added.

"So what are you nervous about?" Dawn asked.

"Clothing right? Right? It's what I'm worried about when I go out on dates…"Andrew trailed off. "Yeah, that actually is one of the things I'm worried about. I don't think Draco understands that casual to me means jeans and a t shirt."

"Don't worry Bud. We'll find you a cool outfit after lunch. It'll give you enough time to change your chosen date clothes…and if you're still having questions, it will probably give you enough time to Owl Draco, and find out exactly what he meant by casual." Willow always knew how to take care of her Xander, even if he was less her Xander now, and more his own Alex. 

"Oh, and you have to email Ron to cancel your training session today." Buffy would be the one to remember Ron. 

"Oh yeah - wait! No, I don't have to cancel." He paused, "It will just fit. Draco's picking me up at 7:00PM so I'll do the training at five, get ready at six, and I'll have less time to worry. It's perfect" Alex grinned.

"Okay, I hate to be the downer here, but we really have to get our school stuff done if we want to do anything exciting tomorrow, guys." Willow, always the voice of reason, continued on, "Hermione, Ginny - Ron's little sister, Ron, and Harry are coming to Hogwarts to teach us how to fly and how to play quidditch." With an incentive like flying, as one, the five friends turned to the books, computers, and notes in front of them and started working. Even Alex was able to concentrate. When lunch rolled around, the professors were surprised to see that the young people hadn't moved since breakfast, and that they didn't seem to stop for lunch. This seemed very "American" to them; the grueling work schedule was just not a European attitude.

After lunch, Andrew and Dawn went to study in the library, and Willow, Buffy and Alex went to find an outfit for his date that night. They decided on black Italian leather shoes, a pair of brownish wool woven straight cut pants, a black plaque belt, and a midnight black button down untucked under a black fitted knee length jacket. Buffy insisted that they charm his hair to be dark brown with lighter bronze highlights later that night. The young man then threw the girls out, told them he'd meet them in the library in an hour, and went jogging. 

When he went back to the library, he was still in his jogging stuff. He decided to get back to the LaVelle book, and managed to read another three chapters before going to meet Ron. This time Buffy came with them to watch (though he didn't know whether she was watching Ron, or their progress) because Willow was going to work with Snape on some spell ideas she wanted to bounce off of someone with experience in the field of Defense against the Dark Arts. About halfway through the session, he began to get nervous about the date. Surprisingly it was Andrew who noticed the fact that Alex was getting sidetracked and, thinking back to his own experience, figured that it had to be the up and coming date. Andrew caught Dawn's attention, and then flicked his gaze to the distracted mage, and whispered "he's nervous, follow my lead" under his breath. The couple proceeded to inundate the Wizard with questions until 6PM whereupon Alex flew out the door to his room, leaving a confused Ron and Buffy, and a proud Dawn and Andrew.

Alex had rushed so fast he was dressed and ready with fifteen minutes to spare. It was truly impressive. He checked his wallet to make sure he had enough money, and made sure he had his visa, his ID, and his Passport just in case. He sat in his sitting room and looked at the ceiling. He decided to brush his teeth one more time, 'just in case' - at the very least, it would pass the time. 

At exactly 7:00PM there was a knock at the portrait. Alex opened it to find a gorgeous smiling Draco Malfoy at his door. He couldn't keep the grin off of his own face. "Hey Draco!" 

"Hi Alex, how was your week?"

"Good, excellent, we actually made an amaz-well, how about we leave that for later. I'm good, Draco, how are you?" he decided to keep it simple. 

"I'm quite well thank you." Draco said with a flourish, "but don't you really want to know where we're going?" he said with a cheeky grin.

Alex laughed, "well now that you mentioned it, I would like to know where I'm going to spend the night...uh, evening, I meant evening...Damn" Draco leered playfully and answered, "I've decided to make this date both muggle and wizard just for you, my dark elf. We're going to a muggle movie, then to dinner at my favorite Wizarding restaurant, Artemis, and then on to drinks at Pucks". Draco was actually quite sensitive when he wanted to be. He knew that Alex would be much more comfortable in a muggle movie theatre than watching a wizard show with tons of magic and other new things. He was fine either way, as long as he got to spend his evening with this intelligent gorgeous man. 

They first portkeyed to the theatre, and decided to watch the latest campy horror, Blood of the Damned, to lighten things up. They each bought tickets, and sat down to the movie, thinking it would be amusing. Needless to say, it wasn't. 

"That was absolute bullshit!" Alex hissed to Draco upon exiting the theatre, clearly upset. "Vampires are nothing like that! They're not romantic leads, they're mostly evil. And when you forget that the romantic lead is really a demon, he turns around and does something like sell demon eggs on the black market or worse, kill people you love. Fuck!" The mage ran his fingers through his hair roughly.

"Uh, Alex, it was a movie, you do know what a movie is, right? It's fake." Draco had no clue what this outburst was about.

"Yeah, right. Tell that to Buffy. I thought you were at the meeting!"

"They mentioned she was a slayer but I must have been concentrating on the brunette in front of her" Draco joked, trying to loosen Alex up. The agitated man shot Draco a rueful look. "Thanks. But I'm serious here. Buffy's the vampire slayer. Or rather, a vampire slayer. Although the last year was spent being your average Joe, I've spent the past eight or nine years helping her fight vampires and other big bads. For fuck's sakes I even lived with one!" Xander finished in a huff. "Lived with what, a vampire? Don't they live in crypts and stuff?" Draco asked. "Yeah most of the time. Or empty buildings and houses. They like to have Lairs. It's kind of lame, really." Xander mused. "You're serious aren't you...well you did live on the Hellmouth. I guess you are serious. Okay...just let me...erg...digest this information." For the first time in his life Draco was baffled and rambling. "Fuck! I need a drink. Let's port key to Artemis's and then you can tell me the whole story." Draco held out a coin and activated the portkey to the Wizarding establishment's transportation area.

The restaurant was quite nicely done in shades of crème, wine, with gold accents and rich dark wood. 

"Mr. Malfoy! This way please" They were escorted to a large booth in the back corner whereupon the waiter immediately took their order and left them alone.

"So tell me more about the vampire slayer."

"It's just that. One girl in all of the world chosen to defeat demons and vampires." Alex paused. "Only, this time, it was a friend of ours. So we helped her how we could." The wizard was constantly surprised at the humbleness of his new friend. He helped defeat vampires and demons, and he still seemed unsure of his worth. Draco's curiosity was piqued.

"And you grew up on the Bouche D'enfer?"

"We like to call it either the Hell Mouth or the La Boca del Infierno, but yes, that's where Willow, Andrew, Buffy, Dawn, and I grew up. It was underneath a town called Sunnydale. More specifically, it was beneath our high school."

"I remember reading about that city in the newspaper a year or so ago. Didn't it get blown up or something?" Draco asked.

"Yup. We blew it up along with the First Evil and his entourage of First Vampires. It's sort of a thing with us. We also blew up our high school, but that was a long time ago." Alex shrugged again. This was all old news to him. He had been aware of the hellmouth since he was 15, when Buffy came to his school. Draco however was still having some problems with his brevity. 

"Um...Luv, it's all well and good for you to just toss random information at me, but it's a little unnerving. How about you tell me the whole story of the First Evil. At least then I'd have an idea of what you mean" Right in the middle of Draco's plea, the food came. The two of them dedicated themselves to the fine art of eating while Alex first explained a bit about the power of Buffy and Willow and the Slayerettes. After they were done he told the whole story -- even was able to mention Anya's part in it -- while Draco drank coffee and then wine. By the end of the story, he was ready for something a bit stronger. He, Draco Malfoy, son of first circle Death Eater Lucius, was speechless.

"Hey, Draco, you okay? Malfoy? Oh great, I broke him." Alex began mumbling to himself, "See this is why I should just stick with dating demons, at least I don't break them when I talk about my past...when they're not trying to sacrifice me for something...no, no, this is better. I'll just fix him." He leaned forward and waved his hand gently in front of Draco's face and the blonde finally snapped out of it. 

"I'm fine, just amazed at you and your friends." He had to touch this amazing man, to make sure that he was truly in his life. He laid his hand on Alex's cheek. "You've done so much, and you finally had a break. Why on earth would anyone want to go back...And yet you're clearly willing to go back out there, and fight a Dark Wizard. Merlin's beard, how could any one have not known your Elven bravery?" Alex looked down, quite embarrassed. "Hey Draco, let's get the bill and get out of here. At Puck's I'll tell you about a singing demon." The blonde knew an escape when he heard one. It had only been about a year since The defeat of the First Evil and he had been rude to press this man. He quickly paid via his Wizard Express Card and then apparated them outside of Puck's. In the bright light of the martini bar he finally noticed Alex's outfit. "Dolce and Gabbana, right? I really liked that line...In fact, I think I have that jacket at home." Alex, finally comfortable again, said thanks and then took a moment to appreciate Draco's outfit while he was ordering drinks. He was impeccably dressed in slim black pants and a thick, grey flecked, black knit turtleneck that he thought might just be Dolce and Gabbana as well. He hoped that their matching tastes might bode well for their future. He grinned to himself - he was such a pouf!

Draco came back with drinks and Alex started telling him about the demon that caused them all to sing when he accidentally let it lose on Sunnydale. The blonde found it quite amusing, and began telling some stories about the Slytherins and the pranks they used to play. He even included some Golden Trio stories in the mix. The conversation turned serious as they talked about relationships, friendships, and family. They talked right up until the martini bar started shutting down.

Alex and Draco slowly made their way outside, and continued their quiet conversation until they reached their portkey. They walked outside of the bar and then turned to each other wondering what was going to happen next. Alex could feel himself falling for Draco but was the other man feeling the same? Draco saw the self doubt flash through this amazing man's eyes, and was stunned. Alexander simply did not know how phenomenal he was. Making a decision, Draco leaned forward and said softly, "Will you catch me if I fall for you?" then caught Alex's lips with his own in a searing kiss. It was a sweet surrender for both of them as the kiss turned passionate and their arms wound around in an almost protective embrace. Draco was the first to pull back. "uhm," he started with uncharacteristic gracelessness, "we need to pause for a moment. Are you returning to Hogwarts tonight? Or will you come home with me?...Please come home with me my dark elf." His voice was husky with emotion. Alex leaned his forehead against Draco's, his thoughts racing, his heart pounding. "Draco? I don't know if I can -" Draco cut him off. "No expectations, Alex. I just want your company." This time the mage instigated the kiss, his mouth open against Draco's in an attempt to get as close, as intimate with him as possible, their tongues intertwining, licking, tasting, sensuously. When Alex leaned back to take a breath, Draco took that moment to portkey them both to his Flat in Muggle London.

The travelling was enough to bring the mood back down from it's rather fevered pitch. Draco set about to find something for the brunette to wear, and found a pair of chocolate brown pajama bottoms and a t shirt. The two men were actually pretty much the same size so the fit was about right. Draco was a little thinner, but since the pajama bottoms had a tie waist, there was no problem. Draco was wearing black silk striped pajamas bottoms with a black t-shirt and the top to the pajama set on top. 

"So...I'm pretty tired, Draco." Xander said honestly. It wasn't that he didn't want to talk to the blonde, but he was so worn out that he might fall asleep in the middle of something important if they stayed up. After all it was already 3am.

Okay, well let me just show you around the apartment quickly, so that you know where things are in the morning, and then we'll go to bed" 

Within ten minutes, the two of them were curled up in the king sized bed, talking in low voices. Draco leaned in for a good night kiss and Alex was happy to oblige. They fell asleep wrapped around each other.

At seven, Alex awoke to his internal clock. Grumbling to himself, he got out of bed, went to the bathroom, and then promptly crawled back into the very comfy bed, underneath the very comfy down comforter, and beside the very comfy blonde. Who was now awake thanks to the not so quiet man beside him. He decided to repay him with kisses. Lots of tiny kisses up and down the back of Alex's neck until Alex turned around and kissed him rather passionately. He then started nibbling down the front of his neck and managed to sneakily slip his hand up the front of Alex's toned chest and caress this tanned god's nipples. Alex groaned and rolled them over so that Draco was on top. He pulled off the blonde's shirt, threaded his hands through the almost platinum hair, and kissed Draco senseless. Draco was in heaven. Or at least almost there. Draco grabbed the ends of Alex's shirt, and practically tore it off. He began nibbling and licking his way down Alex's body, stopping to bite and lick at his nipples, and stopping to thrust his tongue seductively into his navel. He continued down to the edge of the pajamas and then looked up into the brunette's face for acceptance. Alex's speechlessness was broken, "Yes, yes God yes, Draco" Draco undid the tie and slid the pants down to reveal Alex's long thick length. He then licked once, from base to tip and then lightly swirled his tongue along the same path before taking the head in his mouth and sucking hard. Alex moaned. He then slid his mouth down the shaft as his hand moved up the base and set a relaxed pace. When the fingers from his other hand began to slowly circle and lightly probe his anus, Alex stopped Draco, pulled him up so that he was face to face, kissed him forcefully and then asked the blonde, very sweetly, to make love to him. Draco moaned, and then made his way back down the brunette's body. He then tongued the slit and slid his mouth the rest of the way down the shaft, teasing the head with his throat. He pulled off, leaned over to his bed table, and grabbed a condom and lube. He slicked his fingers in lube and slowly began to stretch Alex's tight hole while his mouth set a punishing rhythm until Alex came, calling his name. He then turned them both onto their side, slowly entered his beautiful man, and began slowly thrusting. He wanted this to be memorable, to last. 

Alex felt better than he had in ages. He felt content and whole with Draco. With a bit of maneuvering, he kissed Draco and felt himself begin to harden again. He moaned when Draco pulled out, feeling bereft but understood when the wizard guided him on to his back. With a few well- placed pillows, Draco and Alex were able to face each other and were able to see the emotions in both of their eyes. The languid fucking became more intense and Draco leaned over and captured Alex's lips in a ferocious kiss, biting and pulling at the bottom lip as he pounded on the mage's prostate. Alex was keening now and he tightened around Draco as he came, bringing the blonde along with him. After wiping up their effluvia, the wizard collapsed, and smiled up at his lover. He gently pulled out and gathered the other man close to him. Within minutes they were sleeping peacefully, wrapped in each other. 

They awoke to a tapping on the window. Draco leaned over, kissed Alex awake, and then opened the window. The very irate owl hooted madly before finally landing on the edge of the bed. Draco untied the note, then, seeing that it was addressed to Alex, passed it over. "Oh Shit! I forgot to tell them I wasn't coming home"

"You're a grown man, why would you?"

"In LA their were still a lot of "big bads" - both human and non-human - so we got in the habit of letting each other know if there was a chance we wouldn't be coming home that night...well it's...Shit! It's noon!" He sighed, "and I should've called or owled or whatever." Draco laughed and slipped his arm around Alex, "Then you're lucky that's not a howler" he said comfortingly.
    
    _
    Alexander LaVelle Harris!
    This morning we were all worried when you didn't come to breakfast and figured that someone didn't
    come home last night. You know the rule. Snape was nice enough to tell us the location of Draco's
    apartment so we're hoping you're there. Please owl us back to let us know you're fine. We
    postponed the Flying lessons until 2:00PM, so be at Hogwarts then.
    The Scoobies_

P.S. we're expecting details... 

Alex handed the letter to Draco.

"They're pretty good friends of yours, aren't they" Draco noted anxiously. 

"Yeah. Yeah they are." Alex responded absentmindedly while writing a brief apology and explanation to his friends and tying it gently to the owl's leg

"So what are we?"

"Draco..." The brunette felt his heart plunge into his stomach at the prospect of maybe not having his feelings returned. He was reluctant to admit the depth of his feelings toward Draco because he, himself had never believed in love at first sight before meeting Draco. Now, however, was a different story. He didn't usually sleep with people this fast, and he was sure he and Draco had something special, something magic. His feelings for Draco were incredibly strong.

"Forget about it, don't worry about it, you don't have to answer that." Draco could feel his heart in his throat. He thought that it was an interesting new sensation. One that he didn't want to experience again. 

"No, don't shut me out...Just. Wait..." Alex put his head in his hands "If only you knew how I felt" he mumbled.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I think I could very possibly be falling in love with you after only one official date." Draco grinned ruefully at his own crazy emotions.

"Me too" said Alex. "So what are we?" Alex echoed the earlier statement. "Lovers? Boyfriends? Soulmates?"

"yeah, either one of those will do." The brunette laughed a very relieved laugh. 

"So, Shower and then back to Hogwarts for you to change and flying lessons?"

"Yeah. I really need to go soon." He leaned over and cuddled up to his lover

They managed to take a quick shower together, with surprisingly few gropes and snogs, deciding they would explore the shower aspect of their relationship at another, more convenient time. Then Draco threw on a pair of black jeans, a sky blue fitted long sleeved shirt, a pair of white k-swiss on, and grabbed his broom, the Mercury XV. Alex threw on his rumpled clothes from last night, much to his displeasure.

They apparated to The Three Broomsticks, then flooed from there to the Hogwarts entrance, then ran to Alex's room, not really wanting to get caught by the staff in the same outfit he left last night with. However, the pictures all smirked at him with knowing looks. "Stupid wizarding pictures." Alex mumbled to himself, quickly letting himself into his room. Draco just laughed gently at his lover, not wanting to get into a muggle versus wizard debate. The brunette took off his rumpled clothes and put on a pair of black jeans and a long sleeved white logo shirt. He shoved on his cherry docs and the studded belt. 

"Ah yes...I believe you're missing the streaks in your hair" Draco smirked. Xander realized he had worn the exact outfit a week before. "Uh, you're not one of those people who makes sure he wears something different every day, are you?" he wrinkled his nose. "Well, at one point I was, but since my situation has changed, I've grown up from the spoiled brat that I once was. Alex, you could wear the same bloody thing for ever, and I wouldn't care. As long as it was clean." 

"Actually, I knew a vampire who wore the same out fit for about three years..."

"Tell me Alex, Do you have a story appropriate for every weird comment I make?" 

"I've lived an odd life, Draco. Get used to it, because I'll probably rub off on you."

"Heaven forbid!" Draco grinned and gave his boyfriend a big kiss. "Do you know what your shirt says, luv?"

"Yeah, It's the sign for Dragon. There's an oriental dragon on the back of the shirt in the same colors. I thought it was cool." He said with a shrug. Though in the past year he had started to actually try to look fashionable, he usually bought things that seemed nifty to him, not that had any deep meaning. Draco continued his badgering. 

"and Elvin warriors used to ride..." 

"Dragons...oh"

"And your boyfriends name is...

"Draco...ah. Short for Draconis, which means dragon. Yeah, I get it" he laughed, then added rather playfully, "Do I get to ride you, as well, Drake?"

Draco's eyes bugged out rather unattractively. He was used to being the one to shock Alex. It seemed that the shoe was on the other foot now. He loved it and laughed delightedly. "Anytime, luv...Anyways, that's why I came over the first time. How could I not, when your shirt had already claimed me. It didn't help that you had the most beautiful intelligent brown eyes as well."

Alex groaned as Draco's husky voice washed over him. 

"C'mere" he grabbed his blonde boyfriend and snogged him hard, carding his fingers through the soft platinum hair. The intensity rose a notch and the guys found themselves wrapped around each other again.

"Fuck we have to stop this, we have to go."

"Okay. Just give me a moment to calm down."

"Uh Draco, I'm guessing that removing your hand from my butt would help" Xander offered. Draco reluctantly pulled away.

"So, Ron, Ginny, Harry and Hermione will be their today to teach us to fly..."

"Thanks. That did the trick. I'm calm now." Draco grinned unabashedly. Though he managed to work quite well with Ron Weasley, he still was easily irritated by his friends.

"You ready to go?" Alex was aching to get on a broom. He was glad his eye was better, because it would've probably hindered his ability to fly. Snape was right, the corrective potions would help his ability to fight well - he really needed to say thanks again. He would be able to fly with his boyfriend…how many of his friends could say that? Well, maybe Dawn and Andrew…ah well. He glanced over at the man in question, sensing his silence. 

"I think so." Draco responded, "I was wondering, though. Your friends are really protective of you, aren't they?" "Yup. You'll probably get the shovel talk." He grinned and stood up to go. "Don't worry, I won't let Willow hurt you." He grabbed Draco's unresponsive hand (after all Willow was rather frightening sometimes) and pulled him out the portrait door and all the way to the Quidditch field. 


	4. Sweeping the Skies

Sweeping the Skies

"Ow! Stop that!"

"Oh come on, you big baby, I wasn't holding on that hard."

"You were too!"

"Well, if you would just _hurry up_ I wouldn't have to practically drag you to the field...Honestly Draco, you'd think that you didn't want to teach me to fly."

"The terror I'm feeling has nothing to do with you being 50 feet up in the air on a piece of wood, and everything to do with the very powerful witch you have as your best friend who may very well blame me for not returning her friend back before midnight."

"erg...50 feet...on a broom..."

"Why Alex, you look a little green. What was that you called me earlier? oh yes...'Oh come on, you big baby', it's not that high up!"

Alex's eyes glinted with revenge.

"Did I ever tell you that the only reason Willow came back from being all apocolyptic was her friendship with me?"

"erg...she's that powerful?" Alex smiled a not so nice grin. "I give"

"Good Dragon, nice dragon, cute little dragon..."

"I'm not cute!"

"Oh I don't know...those big greyish blue eyes framed in long eyelashes...Hey did you know that your eyes change colour? Or do you have contacts? Weird. Then again Spike's eyes went from blue to yellow, and Willow's sometimes go black, so I guess it's not that weird, right?"

"I am not cute. And you are a very odd man, Alex"

"You are!"

"NO. Cute is fluffy bunnies, baby kittens, little chicks. _I'm_ rough and tumble."

"Rough and tumble." Alex was trying his best not to laugh in his indigninant boyfriends face.

"Quite"

"Draco, you're wearing a baby blue shirt..."

"It's _sky_ blue, thank you very much. And it matches my eyes."

"It matches your eyes? Awww, that's so cute. You're so adorable.

"And you,luv, are touched in the head. I don't think I've ever let anyone get away with calling me that except for my mother. You're lucky."

"But you like me anyways, right?"

"Well, you're very...."

"...yes?"

"Cute. You're very cute."

"oh no, you can't use that compliment. I've used it already! Next choice."

"How about bloody annoying?"

Draco rolled his eyes. "Well, that' s not a compliment, is it? Try again.

"Alex, you're not going to let up are you? Fine. Alexander LaVelle, I 'like you anyways' because your eyes shine intelligently, your lips quirk mischeviously, and you move amazingly."

With each word, Draco had been pulling the brunette closer and closer to him and then he added, "and you're cute." With the final statment, he pulled Alex into a heated kiss. After a couple of seconds, they pulled apart.

"Oh." 

"So, we've almost reached your friends. Could you possibly find it within yourself to protect your adorably cute boyfriend?"

"Yeah, I wouldn't want anything to happen to someone who can kiss like that..."

They grinned and took each others hand and proceeded to meet up with the others on the pitch. 

The looks that graced the faces of the Golden trio were at a contrast with the looks that were on the scoobies' faces at the sight of Alex and Draco walking up the field. The trio looked, well honestly, they looked rather shocked and dismayed. The scoobies, on the other hand, looked surprised and delighted. They could see the way these two walked and laughed together and knew that their Xander had found someone new.

When the couple finally approached the group of young people, Willow gently extricated Draco's hand from her best friend's, put it in her own and turned to him. "Excuse me, I have to talk to this man about a shovel" She turned back to Draco. "If you hurt him I will come after you with a shovel. This shovel will not be metaphorical, it will not little, it will not be plastic. It will be real, big and metal. It will hurt. So don't hurt him okay?" She then leaned up to speak into Draco's ear and whispered, "Severus told me some vague details of the your life okay? So this next part's for you." Then she walked over to her best friend and said, "Alexander LaVelle Harris, You know the shovel talk. If you hurt Draco, I have a shovel with your name on it as well." Alex smiled at the approval inherent in her voice and tugged Draco over to him for a quick peck on the cheek. They were suddenly enveloped in a group hug. The trio and Ginny just stood there with a surprised expression. They had thought that if it was any one getting close to this group it would be one of them, not Draco bloody Malfoy. 'Ah well' they thought to themselves, shrugged and then called out, "Who wants to learn how to fly?" 

The mushy group split up and grabbed the brooms that had been brought out of the broom shed. They five that couldn't fly faced the five that could. "First you've got to call your broom. Like this...Up! It should then rise straight to the hand you hold over it." Harry explained. Out of the five scoobies, it only worked for Willow, Xander and Andrew. Buffy's broom merely turned over and seemed to nestle further into the ground. Dawn's got about a meter off of the ground and then fell back down. The three that got it to work went over to the two sisters. "Uh, Buffy, your broom looks like it's burrowing even deeper into the ground."

"Thanks Xander, y'know, I didn't notice that at all!" The fact that her broom was trying to get as far away as possible from her didn't inspire confidence. 

"Yowch. Sarcastic much, Buff?

"I just don't know if I want to go that high on a piece of wood," Though it was a very sturdy broom, it still was pretty small compared to her preferred way to travel sky high - that being a passenger jet. She just wasn't one for heights. Not since her second death. She shivered, then shook her head to focus. A squeal broke through her funk. 

"Yes! I did it!" Dawn was grinning happily with a broom in her hand. 

"Okay help! I give up."

"Shhhh. Your broom can feel your negativity."

"It can?"

"No."

"Do you want to die a particularly brutal death Elf-boy?"

"I think Draco wouldn't like that much."

"So help me already."

"okay. Say 'up'."

"Up!"

"Say it like you mean it.

"UP!"

"She's not going to like you yelling at her, is she?"

"She who? The broom? Why is it a she?"

"Well your broom is a Tornado II" Draco cut in.

"See? She. Now say up again."

"GRRRRRR. something's going to go up, even if it's where the sun don't shine." the slayer mumbled to herself. It wasn't fair. She would try one last time...

"UP!" The broom flew into her hand.

They were ready for the next step. 

"Okay now, straddle your brooms" called Harry. Draco and Alex smirked but kept quiet...it was just too easy. Shooting an exasperated look at the two, Harry continued, "now loosely grip the handle and lightly tilt the brooms up." By now all the scoobies and Draco were snickering. Hermione and Harry looked at each other with twin looks of frusteration, but Ginny and Ron laughed out loud. "Oh come on you two. It's funny. Why do you think they teach us to fly at such young ages? If they taught us any later, the whole class would read innuendoes into everything!" Ginny giggled. "Okay okay mates, let's get back to this."

"Now I want you to push off, fly about 5 feet off the ground fly to the far end of the Quidditch field, then tilt your broom down and land by the goal post."

They all pushed off at about the same time, but did not land even remotely at the same time. 

Buffy's broom had decided to do it's best impression of a stubborn mule for her rider. "Come on broom. Go faster. Giddyap." The broom went even slower. Everyone had passed her. "Do you see the other people passing us, broom? Now, catchup." The Tornado II didn't have to be told twice. It liked to go fast. "Aieeee! Stop stop stop!" Buffy was ready to jump off when the broom stopped suddenly and managed to upend her, arse over teakettle. "Stupid broom, I'm going to turn you into woodchips, you hear?" Buffy was ticked.

"Have you ever seen that before?" Xander was doubled over laughing. "oh my God. That is the funniest thing I've ever seen" his eyes were watering now. 

"Merlin's beard! What the fuck did she do to it? Usually brooms are immobile without a rider. This is the first time I've seen a broom fly away from a person. She looks mad enough to burn it."

"Oh, she almost caught up to it that time."

"Ouch. That had to hurt." Draco winced.

"For the broom, or for Buffy?"

"Both."

"oh...almost....OH! She caught it."

The two men looked around at all the laughing people. The only ones not laughing were Harry and Buffy.

"Please Buffy, please just let go."

"NO! You saw what this broom tried to do to me...it tried to kill me!" This was one of the many times where slayer strength was a bonus.

"It did not try to kill you. Please just give it to me. I'll put it far away from you." Harry consoled. 

"It did, it did! It was chasing me!"

"Actually it was you were chasing it, Buf" Dawn put in with a grin. This was just too funny to keep quiet.

"Well, it deserved it. It threw me off!"

"Can we please just put the broom back?"

"You called it names, Buf. And you threatened it. I would run away from you if you did that to me....and I'm your sister!"

"Can we please just put the broom back?" Harry was getting tired of the tug of war he was involved in.

"It needs to be turned into kindling. This broom is a danger to anyone riding it! Or near it, for that matter." "Or maybe it's just that you...uh of course it wasn't anything you did. Forget about it." That was Willow's little contribution. She never did like confrontation. "Can we please just put the broom back?" Poor Harry said this for the third time.

"Fine. Take it. I'm going to sit on the bleachers." With that, the slayer turned on a well formed heel, and left to watch. "Oh thank Merlin. I thought she was going to break the broom, and the school really doesn't have that many." Harry was relieved. She was insane! He ran his hand through his hair a couple of times, blinking at the memory of Buffy chasing the broom. With a swish of his wand, he sent the broom back into the open shed. 

"Okay, now I want you guys to push off at an even bigger angle, go up about 20 feet, turn around and then come down. When you feel comfortable with this, go higher." Dawn was marginally successful this time, and the other three had no problem with this whatsoever. Now all that was left was experimentation.

"Now I want you to just circle the pitch or whatever you want, at whatever speed or height you feel comfortable at. Practice turning, starting stopping and diving" Harry and Ron decided to go up with them, while Draco, Hermione and Ginny kept a cautious eye on the new flyers from the ground. "Hey 'Mione, I'm just going to go sit with Buffy. I know how to fly fine, and I want to make sure that she isn't upset."

"That would be a nice idea, Gin. She looks like she's in a bit of a funk." Hermione appreciated the kindness that her friend showed everyone. And personally, she didn't want the slayer to be anywhere near a broom. 

In the air, Alex was grinning. This was wicked! He caught up with Willow and Andrew.

"This is great!"

"oh Goddess, I know." Willow was talking in that breathy voice she got when she was super excited.

"I wonder how fast these can go?" Andrew seemed pretty geared up as well.

"I don't know but I think I'll stick to my speed now."

"Apparently pretty fast if you're not Buffy."

Xander grinned. Andrew could be quite funny once in a while. "Hey Andrew, you game for a little race?" Alex smirked. "Only if you can catch up Elf-man" and with a grin, Andrew was off. Within seconds, Alex whizzed past Andrew and then began picking up real speed. Though Andrew tried valiantly he knew he was beaten after a lap around the pitch.

Harry caught up to the winner fairly easily. "So mate, y'up to a real race?" The testosterone was pumping, and Alex grinned. "Yeah, sure." Draco watched them from the ground and guessed, from their posture, what was going on. 

"My lovely boyfriend is going to get his arse whipped, isn't he..." he turned to his co-worker.

"Yeah, looks to be that way, Malfoy." Ron grinned, "Not that it wouldn't hurt Harry to get his arse kicked once..." They grinned to each other. Harry had become a little too bogged down by his 'boy-who-lived' status lately. They turned their attention to the skies. At the sound of Hermione's 1-2-3-go, the two men were off. The goal of the race was to go four times around the quidditch pitch and then touch down at the east side middle goal post. Whoever got there first won.

Harry took off fast with a typical quidditch move and then slowed down, knowing that Alex couldn't conceivably know how to perform a _quickstart_ on the broom. He wouldn't want to embarrass the new broom rider. It was only fair. He was therefore surprised when he saw the guy whiz past him milliseconds after slowing down. "Fuck!" He increased his speed and by the end of the first lap they were neck and neck.

By the second lap he was edging out in front of the mage, much to Alex's chagrine. He wanted to win, dammit! The people on the grounds were screaming themselves hoarse cheering for him. He had to succeed for them. Alex grinned, blocked out everything but the wind around him, the track in front of him, and broom below him, and raced like he was being chased by the First.

As sooon as he pulled around the last turn, he headed for the goal post and eased his broom forward to land. He had no clue where Harry was. Was he below him? Pushing the worry out of his mind, Alex managed to make a running landing right to the pole and landed on all fours. He then shook his head to come out of his focus and was almost bowled over by Harry dismounting. Holy fuck. He had won. Draco was grinning from ear to ear at the new turn of events. That was quite a race. His lover was spectacular. He grabbed Alex and kissed him proudly in front of everybody and whispered, "I've always loved a man who can ride a broomstick." The brunette grinned and rolled his eyes at his sultry lover. Then it hit him. He had beaten Harry Potter.

"But why? Why could I beat Harry? The books said he was the best seeker in a century." Alex asked worriedly. "Because you're a mage, my dark elf. And it seems this is your steed. You do realize that you were on a crappy broom and Harry was on a newer model, right?" Draco said with a broad grin. His lover had beaten Harry Potter. Ha! It was bloody fabulous. However, this was all of a sudden very overwhelming to Alexander LaVelle. He had to sit down.

Draco was concerned. His prior relationships were always with men who didn't have the depth of emotions that Alex had and he didn't want to mess this one up by sheer ignorance. He sat down on the grass next to his boyfriend and rubbed him on the back, recalling that a good backrub had always relaxed him. He then started talking in a quiet voice, "Luv, I don't exactly know what to do for you right now," he began a little awkwardly, "so if there's anything you need please tell me." Alex smiled at the sweetness of his new lover and relaxed back into the gentle massage. 

"It's just been quite the week for me. I found out that a fictional series of books are real and I've fallen in love with one of the villains in those books. I had someone heal a wound that the doctor's thought unhealable" He took a deep breath. "I found out I'm an Elven mage, and that not only can I ride a broom, it seems to be my steed or something, and I'm good at it." As Alex trailed off, Draco decided that the best course of action was to distract him from his problems a bit. It wasn't that he wouldn't help Alex, it was just that this didn't seem the time or the place.

"Yeah that's a lot. But let's think about me for a change...I've lost my reputation as a cold hearted bastard." His dark haired lover laughed and then whispered, "Take a look at the Golden Trio's faces." Draco surreptitiously turned to look and then hid his face in the brunette's neck. Harry, Ron and Hermione were incredulous at Draco's kind actions. Their mouths were hanging open. He got up and faced them, hauling Alex up while he did so. "You do realize that just because I wasn't nice to you, doesn't mean that I can't be nice to other people, right?" 

Oddly enough, it was Harry who responded angrily. "Draco, I know you're on our side, but you've been a right git to us even since school ended." 

"Oh? And what have I done?"

"Acted like we weren't worth your time, ignored us, and flat out avoided us."

Draco laughed at that. It was just so childish and he could see the disbelief etched into Alex's friends faces at Potter's words. 

"Look Harry, we don't like each other. I'm not going to go out of my way to talk to you if I don't like you, right? You don't do that to me, do you? And have you ever considered that we ignore and avoid each other? It's mutual. Get over it. I have. Even Weasely has"

He flicked his glance over to the redhead who had wandered over to the Quidditch bleachers and was now talking to Ginny and Buffy.

"Ron is just being civil to you because he has to work with you."

"Oh is that so?" Draco was getting irritated.

"Of course. You didn't really think he liked you did you? He just feels sorry for you because you're alone."

"Dude! What the fuck is your problem?" Alex really didn't like the way this was going.

"All of you! Bloody hell, you think you can just march in and save the wizarding world on your own! How fucking cocky can you get? Do you Americans not realize that we've been working on this problem for a decade now?" He turned on Alex, "Do you think that because you have _destiny_ that you'll be able to win something we can't even fight? I have destiny as well, but that's basically counted for shit! Just....go back to where you came from." Harry trailed off. 

The quiet was deafening.

And the Harry did the only thing he could do. He walked away. 

"Should I go after him?"

"Should we go after him?"

"Should you guys go after him?"

A chorus of questions echoed out of the slightly tarnished trio and the Sunnydalians. 

"What was that"

"Who does he think he is"

"What am I, chopped liver?"

More confused questions spewed forth until finally Buffy called attention to herself with a well placed whistle.

"Hey! Let him be. He's dealing with whatever is bugging him. We should probably just let him go figure it out. Ron, you live with him right?"

"yeah, should I follow him?"

"No, he'll be okay, but tonite, when you get home, check up on him; be there for him. I have a feeling he's rather overwhelmed with all of us kind of invading his turf." She smiled ruefully. "I kinda felt the same way when the crew from AI wanted to come down to Sunnydale to help us. He'll get over it."

She turned to the blonde standing a ways off the group, muscles still tensed. "Hey Draco, you okay?" She really didn't want to get involved in the long standing tiff between these two, so it was lucky that Ron decided to speak up. 

"Hey mate, you know Harry didn't mean what he said, right? You are the last person I would dare to pity, you'd probably curse me something awful." Ron said with a grin, while walking towards Draco. He grabbed the Mercury XV off the ground and handed it to his fellow Auror, "Here. Go. Fly. Come back when you're not ready to hex anything in sight."

With that, Draco took off, leaving a rather confused and disgruntled group behind.


	5. Curses and the Cruciatus

Cursing and the Cruciatus

If it's at all possible, please review. Though I had writers block for a while, it seems to have disappeared. Yay. Thanks go to you guys that have reviewed, and to the person who flamed me saying that "slash is fine, as long as it's not Xander and Draco?" I just want to say thanks for the laugh. Too funny. 

* * *

With Draco and Harry now gone, the others disbanded with quiet explanations. "Hey Ginny, Ron? I have to get going - I have some legal studies work to do...do you want to floo home with me?" "Yeah, it's been a busy day, and I think I'll stop in at the ministry to finish up some paperwork -- How about you, Gin?" Ginny looked tentatively around. She really didn't feel like going home right now, but wasn't sure that she would really fit in with these people. Dawn and Buffy exchanged knowing glances. "Hey Ginny, why don't you join us for dinner in the Great Hall tonight, you can fill us in on all the Hogwart alumni gossip." The look of relief on the tall redhead's face was tangible. "Uh guys, I'm not really up to eating...I'm just going to go back to my room and maybe do some..." " - sulking? Yeah, that's fine Alex." Willow answered with a grin. "We'll send up some food with a house elf, okay?" As always, willow was understanding. 

After Hermione, Alex, and Ron left, the rest of the group trouped to the great hall to dine with the professors. Dawn and Andrew leading, with Willow, Buffy and Ginny lagging behind. The two redheads were in a heated conversation over the need for wands, versus wandless magic. To be honest, Buffy just wasn't interested. She was a slayer not a witch. Caught up in her own thoughts, she realized she was quite a few steps behind the two witches, and so she took a moment to watch them interact. It was nice to see Willow with someone she shared so much with. They seemed to even share a flare for the exotic in the way they dressed. Willow had paired some jeans and flip flops with an elegant green mandarin collared, asian inspired shirt, and twisted her hair around two ebony sticks to keep it out of her face. Ginny, who was a little taller was wearing slightly flared jeans, sneakers, and a floaty strapless dress that went down to her knees over the jeans. Her short hair was tousled so it had the same look as Harry's. Maybe she should try that messy look. Hmm.

"Buffy? Earth to Buf!"

"Huh? Wha-"

"You were day dreaming or something" Willow interrupted with a poke to the blonde's side. "

"Yeah, you looked like you were off in your own world" Ginny smiled. 

"Oh no, I was just thinking. Don't worry, nothing important."

"Worried about Alex?"

"Yeah, that too. Hey Ginny, is Harry always like this? So...drama queen-ish?"

"No" Ginny exclaimed "I don't know what's gotten into him lately! He's been touchy and irritable. Geez, I'm so glad I'm not attracted to him anymore."

"You're not? But the books..."

"Willow, come on. Your best friend is going out with Draco Malfoy. I've read the books, I know that he's like, a death eater in the books, but in reality, he was simply misguided for a while. The books are not infallible, nor are they recent," She added this with a grin. "I got over Harry some point in my fourth year, and then proceeded to crush on almost every seeker that played for Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. It was an on going joke between my brothers and I while I was at Hogwarts."

"That's pretty funny. Then again my history with dating is pretty amusing as well -"

"Wills, we're here. You may not want to launch into that story quite yet, as much as I'm sure it would reassure Ginny"

"Why would it reassure me?"

"Trust me."

"Buf you're a nut." Willow was clueless what Buffy was referring too.

"And I'm a hungry nut. Let's sit down." Buffy gave her self Kudos for the excellect conversation change.

By now they had caught up with Dawn and Andrew, and sat down at the head table. Dinner commenced with a few greetings and raised eye brows. It was odd to see Ginny at Hogwarts with out the Golden Trio. 

"So, my dear guests, how was flying for your first time?"

"Alex kicked bu-" Buffy clapped her hand over Dawn's mouth just in time.

"Alex was great. He's even faster than Harry!" Ginny quickly explained.

"And how about the rest of you - did you all enjoy the sensation of flying?" Dumbledore gently inquired. There was a derisive snort from Dawn's direction and a glare from Buffy's.

"Buffy almost killed a broom today" Dawn said as soon as Buffy let go of her

. "I did not. She was going to kill me! She was even acting guilty. I think she was possessed... Can you have a possessed broom? You better check that out. I'm slayer, I can sense these things." Realizing that she was acting sort of dumb, the slayer trailed off. 

"Miss Summers, I have no doubt that it was not your fault. Perhaps a different teacher? Maybe Mr. Weasely could help?' A glint sparkled in his eyes. Buffy caught the glint, and blushed. Man, was she that obvious? Time for another conversation change. 

"Professor Dumbledore, I think I should let you know that Harry's in a bit of a bad mood."

"Yes, I am aware of that, Miss Summers. In fact, Mr. Potter came to see me a bit before dinner. I promise you, he will be fine eventually."

"Okay." Reassured, Buffy and the slayerettes went on to enjoy another meal courtesy of the house elves. 

* * *

While the girls were enjoying the company of the staff and each other, Alex was alone. While he was wandering the halls, he bumped into a house elf on his way to the kitchen. Angsty and Hungry, he followed it to the kitchen. He cracked a smile when the house elf tickled an apple on a portrait to open the door. "Too cliche" he muttered to himself. As he walked into the chrome and green marble kitchen he was stunned to see Harry Potter happily munching on some pizza, talking to a house elf.

"Potter? What are you doing here. You have your own apartment, don't you? Oh wait, let me guess...boys-who-lived don't cook for themselves and heaven forbid they do their own dishes."

"Taking sarcasm lessons from Malfoy, LaVelle? Apparently you're not very good at it."

"Look, I've had to deal with a snarky Blonde Vampire for the past three years, I don't need lessons."

"Oh, so you didn't just meet Malfoy?"

"Fuck off, Potter! God, who knew that the saviour of the Wizarding World would be such an idiot."

"And who knew that the elven mage would be such a broody bastard..."

Alex sat down heavily, realizing that the argument would end up going absolutely nowhere. His stomach growled, much to his chagrin, as Potter wolfed down another slice of Pizza.

"Look, I came down here to eat. I didn't feel up to company, so if I can have a couple of pieces to take back to my room, I'll leave you to your own devices."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Oy! You said a couple of slices. You took half the bloody pizza!"

"Well, there was another half, wasn't there. You ate that. I eat this half. It's completely fair."

"It was _my_ pizza! God, you are just like Malfoy!"

"Is that supposed to be an insult? He's my boyfriend, for fuck's sake."

"Yeah, Where is he, anyways? Is he on to his next conquest already? Poor, pretty-boy Alex. Ditched by a death eater."

"Aw, you think I'm pretty. That's sweet. I gotta say though, your comebacks sound a lot like compliments."

"You are so bloody conceited, LaVelle. You do realize that he wouldn't want you if you still only had one eye, right?"

"You asshole!" Alex roared and took a step towards Harry.

"God you wouldn't stand a chance, _Harris_ you've learned what, four spells? Hah."

"You're a bitter, bitter man, aren't you, Potter."

"Last battle you fought, you lost your eye and your fiance...doesn't bode well for us, does it?"

"You fucker!" Alex had come to the end of his rope. "Where's Percy, huh? What about Lavender and Parvati? At least no one I was friends with went over to the other side because of me!" And with that final barb, the proverbial gloves were off. Just as Harry yelled _**detrimentosus corpus**_ Alex called out _**contegere**_ and erected a quick shield around his body. Harry then shouted out _concido_ which was a kind of physical blow that landed where ever you pointed the wand, to which Alex responded with a luckily well placed "repercutio" and reflected the physical blow back onto the black-haired boy. As Xander paused to rack his brain for other spells while Harry was doubled over, he realized how little he knew. Harry straightened up, and was about to call out exanimo, a sort of metaphysical punch to the gut, when Alex bellowed out "Expelliarmus!" with all his might. He was tired, and he wanted to end this. Harry's wand flew to Alex's hand, leaving the black haired boy stunned by the obvious display of power. Suddenly they heard slow clapping from the doorway, and they both turned around to see a smirking Snape.

"Potter, LaVelle, Impressive. Two grown males fighting over a pizza and a boyfriend."

"I was just defending myself, Professor Snape. I don't like to fight." Alex looked properly abashed.

"Nonetheless, this isn't the right way for the next muggle studies professor to act" Snape chastised.

"I know. I'm sorry, Sir"

"And you should definitely know better, Mr. Potter. I happened to notice that you were the one throwing the curses while Mr LaVelle here just defended himself. Do you have anything to say for your intolerable behavior?" Harry's eyes narrowed at Snape. It was obvious to him that Snape had found a protege, and he, once again, was going to be made out to be the bad guy. It figured. Just once he wanted Snape to treat him like a human, not like a house elf. Damn. Again he silently wished that the Americans would just go home. Oh yeah, he had to respond to Snape. "No. Sorry. Bad day" he mumbled. "Fine." Snape dismissed Harry with a quick nod. "Mr. LaVelle, would you please follow me." "Uh Sir, can I bring my pizza, I'm really hungry..." Alex gazed wistfully at the pepperoni dominated pizza. With a roll of his eyes Snape conceded defeat to the boys hunger. "Fine."

* * *

After one of the house elves scurried up to Alex with his plate of pizza, they progressed to the Dungeons. "Professor Snape, where are we going?" Alex said hesitantly, not wanting to further irk the potions master. "After feeling the shockwave of magic you sent through the castle with your expelliarmus , I decided to further your education sooner rather than later as Dumbledore was wont to do. Potter was right about one thing. You don't know enough to fight in a war, and though Mr Weasley is doing a fairly credible job educating you, we need to exponentially increase the speed of your learning in the next few weeks before school starts." After Alex nodded his understanding and co-operation, Snape continued. "You seem to have a natural aptitude for learning - no, don't scoff at this, you need to have confidence in your abilities or else you'll waste them - and you need to learn the unforgivables. Since I am capable of all three forgivables and have experienced _Cruciatus_ and _Imperius_ and can throw off the latter, I am to teach you these. I'm also to teach you to learn how to conjure a Patronus." Snape turned to look at the young adult next to him to see Alex nod in approval while eating another piece of pizza. He swallowed. "Okay. So I'm learning all of those tonight?" Snape turned to look at the mage incredulously. "Tonight? No, of course not, you're to have them learned by the beginning of the school year." "Oh. Good. Wonder what my Patronus will look like. Maybe it'll look like Buffy, huh?" He was getting excited. "Mr. LaVelle, patience is a virtue. Please remember that." Professor Snape looked back at Alex as he opened the door to a classroom devoid of furniture. He had managed to eat three pieces in the ten minutes it had taken to get to the unused classroom. Snape turned to the Blackboard and started to write out the names of the unforgivables and spell, some information, and wand technique, while Alex demolished another 2 pieces. "Mr. LaVelle, can I tear you away from your pizza so that we can start?" The young mage blushed. "Yeah of course. er...Sorry" he mumbled. 

"First we start on the Imperius, because it does the least amount of damage to the physical body. However, if left on long enough, it can detrimental to one's emotional and psychological health, making one's will extremely weak. I assure you I will not let that happen." Here Snape stopped again, to make sure that this young man understood him. Seeing worry cloud his eyes, he knew the severity of the curse had sunk in and he carried on. "I will cast it and you will use all the emotional strength you can collect to dispel it. Ready?" "Well, as ready as I'll ever be." With that, Alex turned a shade paler than he already was. "_Imperio!_" Snape called out, with his wand directly pointed at the mage's heart. "You will walk like a penguin" Without hesitation, Alex started to waddle around, not knowing exactly why he was acting like a Penguin, but knowing that it felt good to just relax and be penguiny. Slowly his mind clued in to the fact that it felt almost too good to be a penguin...it reminded him of another sensation he had experienced. Still waddling, he forced himself to remember what that was...oh yeah, being in Dracula's thrall had felt like this. Oh. oh. Shit. He had to stop. Had to stop. But it felt so good, just as it had to be Dracula's pawn. But wait, he didn't want to be a pawn in someone else's power. That was so not of the good. So he just had to *stop* acting like a penguin. Okay, first step,loosen the arms from their positions. Okaaay...done. Second step, stop waddling. Third step, cast off the actual curse. There. Alex again. "Well done. It took you about fifteen minutes to cast off. We need you to learn to do it instantaneously. Try again. _Imperio!_ Alex, sing the last song you were listening to." With that command, Alex immediately started belting out a punk tune a la Ramones. "Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours ago, I wanna be sedated...." This time he realized what had come over him right away, although it took him a couple of verses to stop singing, and then a couple of more refrains to stop from muttering the words. However, after about fifteen minutes, he was able to cast off the entire curse. Snape was pleased. With more practice, Mr. LaVelle would be as adept as Mr. Potter at casting off this particular curse. 

"Mr. Lavelle, Now that I've been assured that indeed, you have the capability of throwing of that curse, let's move on to the Cruciatus curse." The Potions Master glanced back at the terror stricken face of the mage. This was exactly why he had to put the young man through the curses. If he did not, the mere names of the curses would be frightening enough to immobilize the young mage and render him useless. It was up to him to prevent that. Aurors and the like learned to combat that fear by facing the curse, and so would Alex. 

"_Crucio!_ Snape yelled, and Alexander LaVelle went down like a wet load of wash. He had never had someone with this much power and practice aim that particular curse at him, and it was devestating. Knives and swords, pins and needles, razors and blades, all were invading his body. He curled up to somehow protect himself from the non existant weapons and squeezed his eyes shut against the pain. _Finite Incantatum!_ Snape cried out and the pain stopped so suddenly it was almost like some sort of vacuum. Alex shuddered, gritted his teeth and said,"Can we never, ever do that again? Please?" Professor Snape sighed in regret. "Unfortunately we will have to try this again. At least until we are relatively sure that you can cast _Estasio_ as a defensive manoevre." Alex groaned and Snape continued, unaffected. "However, it would not be a wise decision to crucio you again today, nor would be a good idea to attempt a patronus. The dementor's assault on your psychological mind could be devastating while you are in a weakened physical condition." The mage nodded and sighed his relief. Snaped took a hard look at the young man in front of him. "I also wonder, Mr. LaVelle, if perhaps you need to be told that Mr. Potter, though deep down a good man, tends to know just where to twist the proverbial knife. I won't tell you not to fault him for his behaviour, but do bear in mind that he's been held responsible for the safety of the wizarding world since he was eleven years old." With that, Snape turned on his heel and walked out of the room. "Damn cryptic-guy routine. Someone needs to patent it." Alexander sighed and decided to go look for Draco. 

* * *


End file.
